Accelerate young Rwandan entrepreneurs

Meet Esther. A recent graduate from a local women's college where she majored in hospitality and entrepreneurship, Esther's dream was to open a restaurant. During school, Esther applied to a business plan competition and talked about how her restaurant was going to provide much needed employment opportunities for the people in her home village. In August 2015, Esther's business plan was selected, and she was given 2,000 GBP to pursue her dream.

This is Esther in her business, Forever Peace Restaurant. It is a brightly colored place that serves mostly traditional Rwandan food to an average of 70 customers per day. Esther employees 5 local women who help with the prepartion, waitressing, and cleaning.

With the original start-up capital and support from AEC's business development team, Esther has achieved early success. She hasn't let her initial achievements stop her hard work, dedication and sacrifice, because Esther knows that she still has a long way to go to build the loyal customer base needed to make her business sustainable. To save money, Esther lives in a small bedroom in the back of the restaurant.

“This was the dream, and it’s working,” she said with a beaming smile.

AEC works with hundreds of young entrepreneurs like Esther. To date, these entrepreneurs have created more than 1,200 jobs in Rwanda, the overwhelming majority in rural areas, like Esther's hometown.

Thank you for supporting our work and for believing in the power of African entrepreneurs.

2015 was a year of tremendous success for African Entrepreneur Collecitve. We served more entrepreneurs than ever before. We grew our team to a full-time staff of 20. We conducted our first comprehensive program evaluation and produced our first impact report. 

But most importantly, we proved that our work is greatly affecting the lives of young Rwandans. Through our programming, our entrepreneurs are developing into community leaders and catalysts. These young people are bringing new economic opportunities to corners of Rwanda that have long been under-resourced. They are changing lives and uplifting their communities.

I could go on and on about all of our achievements and the success of the 100 entrepreneurs we served, but I think our 12 Months of AEC video does a better job. Please take a few minutes to watch this summary, learn about all of the work that your generosity has enabled this year, and see for yourselves the photos of our incredible entrepreneurs.

From all of us at AEC, thank you, and Happy New Year!

Links:

• 2015 Year in Review Video