Showcasing the individuals who make up the artisan industry.
My name is Jeanne Nyirangiinshuti. They used to call me Mama Kibaki. I am working at a cooperative called Buranga mean ‘Beauty’, since 2008 and I am in charge of quality control. I am 34 years old, married with 3 kids. I have finished primary school education only. 
I was born in the west of Rwanda and moved to Kigali for 15 years ago. As life in my hometown was very hard, I decided to come in Kigali where I could find more job opportunities. Even though Kigali is not easy city to work and stay, I have access to different opportunities and can earn enough money to support my family.
In 2011, my cooperative Buranga which specializes in paper beads, was selected to work with Songa Designs. I received training to be quality control liaison and I represent Songa Designs at my cooperative. By joining Songa Designs, we were able to gain more customers and now we have other customers too who like our products because of the quality of each item. Songa’s focus on producing quality items has enabled us to increase our sales.
Prior to joining Buranga, I used to sell fruits around the road, where it was so difficult to earn enough money to buy bread and support my family. After joining Buranga and now Songa Designs, I started contributing to the family and my husband sees the value in my earnings. I can now send my children to school and they have health insurance. I am safe.
Working with Songa Designs through Buranga gives me security of life and allows me to dream of tomorrow. I am able to pay my house rent and buy clothes for my family. We are now able to save money to buy our own house.
Songa Designs focuses on selling quality more than quantity. They are not impressed by producing a large quantity of products but are impressed by super quality of products, to satisfy the need of their customers.
At Buranga, we are planning to expand our product line beyond paper beads in order to create more products. We look forward to integrating the knowledge and skills we have gained through our partnership and trainings with Songa Designs to increase our product line.