Graduates On The Move

 John's Blog: Week Two Continued...

Seeing how the graduates are doing is a high point of every trip.  I look for opportunities to encourage them and to help them, primarily through networking.  God often provides the way.  For example, on the flight to Kigali, I met the sales manager for a Dutch company that installs fiber optic systems.  He said he needed to find a Rwandan company with the technical expertise to subcontract some installation.  I immediately thought of Charles (Cohort 2), whose business idea was fiber optic cable maintenance and installation.  The two met and it looks like a contract may result. 

Theoneste (Cohort 1) e-mailed that he wanted me to see his office, a very simple, inexpensive space near his home.  I was so proud to see his business up and running.  He created a software package to manage schools.  He has 20 schools using the system.  He demonstrated it for me.  Very impressive.  He expects to add 58 new schools soon, but needs to acquire more bandwidth to serve them.  He hosts his system on servers in the U.S. and Canada.  Dona and I prayed for him and his business.  

I met Hamim and Jacques (Cohort 2) for a soda at the Umubano Hotel.  I had visited their Football (i.e., soccer) Academy in the spring when they had two groups.  They have added several groups and coaches.  They wanted to talk with me about how to introduce character training into the mix.  I suggested three options—two excellent character curricula and one special program for football run by a Regent alum in Guatemala.  We even brainstormed about bringing a youth football club from Hampton Roads to play some friendly matches with Rwandan teams and to build a “brother” club relationship.  My soccer-playing son would love to do it.

Ntare (Cohort 1) was selected as one of 50 entrepreneurs worldwide to display his business at a conference in Finland.  As a result, he is joint venturing with a Finnish software firm to localize their school management software for Rwanda.  He also has 4 clients for his pharmacy management software product.

Fabrice (Cohort 1) won the contract to supply the government of Rwanda all HIV/AIDS test kits.  He is bidding on malaria tests and tests for other diseases.  He imports rapid diagnostic test kits from S. Korea.  He arranged a meeting with the leadership of Junior Chamber International (JCI) to consider a partnership between our BDC and JCI to train more entrepreneurs in Rwanda.  JCI plans to train 300 a year in a short course.  We talked about training their trainers and enrolling the most serious graduates in our 14-week program.

Michaelle (Cohort 1 first prize winner) took some time off to have a baby.  She will launch her business in October with five coffee vending machines imported from Italy that serve fresh brewed Rwandan coffee from her family’s plantation.  She had planned to start with 15, but lack of finances led her to see the wisdom in starting smaller so she can learn the business well before expanding. 

Peter (Cohort 2) has identified a great facility for his Christian K-12 school.  When I visited the site, I was swarmed by local children fascinated by this “muzungu” invading their play space.  Peter plans to teach 950 students and plant a garden (using Farming God’s Way principles) on the site.  He still needs about $20,000 to get started.