Basket weaving has been one of Rwanda's greatest craft, and also a community activity from and hundreds of years ago. On March 11th 2011, Only One Basket Campaign was launched officially launched at the Rwandan High Commission in London UK. The idea behind the Only One Basket Campaign is that you can buy a single item that would help advance trade and better the lives of the producers. The vision is to sell Rwandan artifacts to people in the west with a mission to alleviate poverty amongst Rwandans.
Each of the weavers based in Gitarama, is a survivor and a widow of the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi. They are women who are fighting to overcome poverty, social exclusions and fighting to have financial independence.
I first heard of the Only One Basket Campaign via Twitter. To find out more about the campaign, I went ahead and followed @BeautyofRwanda. Inspired by the campaign I got in touch with Salha Kaitesi, the Rwandan woman behind the UK based company Beauty of Rwanda who describes herself as a 'devoted mother with old fashioned values. Confident, reliable, supportive. Beauty of Rwanda sells and markets the handmade artifacts and got to ask her a couple of questions regarding the campaign and about her passion for the empowerment of Rwanda Women. Read on.
What do you love about your homeland Rwanda?
Everything!I love the fact that Rwanda is very green! I get so emotional when the plane is nearly touching the runway, whenever I travel back, when you can see the country and can’t wait to be on the ground. I just love it!! It is home.
What inspired you to start the Beauty of Rwanda site and start marketing the crafts?
I came across the weavers by accident. Would normally see their crafts around Kigali city but hadn’t really been able to look at it in a different angle i.e. who was weaving and why were they weaving? I got to know a few ladies and found out about their lives and realised that I wanted to help them in moving forward, empowering them on a much higher level. So I thought of getting a website ready and where I would be able to sell and market their crafts.
What is the aim of The Beauty of Rwanda?
We aim to empower Rwandan women through the sell of their hand woven crafts. We want these women to be able to afford the basic things that we all take for granted here in the west i.e. clothing, education for them and their children and food!
What is the ‘Only One Basket’ campaign about?
This is Beauty of Rwanda’s campaign of trying to get everyone involved in empowering the women of Rwanda without an individual over stretching their pockets. We ask that you/household buy at least one of the crafts that we sell. If everyone did this, we would make a huge difference in their world.
Why did you decide to focus on the empowerment of women as the main beneficiaries of the campaign
To this day, women are not taken as equals to men and because of that they suffer! Women are the majority in heads of households in Rwanda they are the ones who need empowering and encouraged and told that they too can make it in this male dominated world! I praise the Rwandan government for all they are doing for them. The other day I read an article that said Rwanda was one of the best countries to be born a girl… The sky is the limit for the Rwandese women.
What is your ultimate dream for your campaign?
My dream is that our campaign continues to get lots of support wherever we take it. I want to be able to make a difference in these women’s lives. I want to see them provide for their families for years to come without worrying where the next meal will come from.
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| "Only One Basket" campaign ambassador Kenyan model Ciru Maina |
I’ve seen you mention (on twitter) that the ‘Only One Basket’ campaign is not a charity but fair trade, why are you passionate about fair trade?
Rwanda has a lot to offer to the world and so does the rest of the African continent. I believe we can sustain ourselves. We just need to believe more in our capabilities.With the right platform, Rwanda and Africa can do it for themselves!
Find out more about Only One Basket from Beauty of Rwanda website, Twitter or Facebook Page
Wow, Rwanda is blessed to have women like you Salha. I like the last symbolic picture of baskets, as Rwandans, we shall definitely grow big eventually. Thanks for this feature AFROELLE.
Sylvia Uhirwa
Kigali
I really love this article and everything it stands for. I intend to invest in some of the products on the website and promote this initiative. I think it is truly beautiful and I am happy that AfroElle helped shine a spotlight on it!