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Hi, my name is Carole Ann Waid. This year I am turning 40 and wanted my birthday to be something I could look back on with fond memories. I decided to have a Charity Gala for my party. I was so excited when my husband found Project Rwanda. We chose this as our charity since I lived in Rwanda in 1992 and 1993. I worked there as a short-term missionary with the International Mission Board. While I was there, I fell in love with Rwanda and it’s people. My best friend from Rwanda even lives in the states now and we are still in touch. I lived in the capitol, Kigali, but my work allowed me to travel all over the country and work with women from many regions. I was single and living alone, but I was not lonely because the people of Rwanda were so gracious, kind, and welcoming of me everywhere I went. I was there to teach and train women about starting and running a business, but what I always tell people, is that I learned more from the people of Rwanda than I could have ever taught them.

The Case for Coffee-Trail Biking in Rwanda

The Brenthurst Foundation¹

Background and Rationale

Countries get rich by making or doing things and selling these goods and services.

Rwanda is on the cusp of the most significant and promising economic changes in its history. But to make these potential changes a reality, Rwanda will have to turn its geographical disadvantages into assets by becoming a regional hub for business services, finance, information technology and the duty-free warehousing of consumer goods. Rwanda will need to become a not-to-bemissed destination for tourists inbound to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for wildlife excursions, offering strategically packaged ‘experiences’ that none of these three can provide. Rwanda will have to leverage its status as a safe, orderly environment where foreign investors build industrial facilities for adding value to timber and minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It will have to become the Dubai of Central Africa, a forward-based warehouse and transaction centre connected to suppliers in the Gulf and China.

Rwanda’s landlocked position, far from a port or a large regional market, is a major disadvantage in realising such a vision. Certainly, it has made the costs of transport very high; and has meant, too, that the cost of inputs into business, especially manufacturing enterprises, has until now been prohibitive.