logo
icona chiusura menu

Contship x Okapia:
Home Street Home

In collaboration with Okapia and Kigali Caritas, Contship supports a group of 30 Rwandan women in Kigali on their journey to economic independence through microcredit and dedicated training.

The project

The “Home Street Home” project is an initiative born from a collaboration between Okapia and Kigali Caritas to promote the independence and social inclusion of the most vulnerable women in the Gasabo and Gishaka neighborhoods of Kigali, Rwanda.

The project relies on microcredit as a concrete tool to foster personal growth and build a dignified future. Beneficiaries participate in a training program that guides them toward financial independence. At the end of the program, each participant receives a small loan to start an income-generating microbusiness, with the goal of building economic stability and new opportunities for themselves and their families. The beneficiaries will commit to repaying part of the microcredit within a year, so that it can be reinvested in a new group of women, thus creating a virtuous cycle.

Okapia progetto "Home Street Home"

By supporting “Home Street Home”, Contship helps fund the start-up of 30 women’s businesses, offering them a real opportunity to change their lives.

Germaine

Germaine is a single mother of two children living in a situation of severe vulnerability. She works as a street vendor selling fruit and vegetables, an activity that is valuable to her but still unstable. Thanks to Okapia’s development project, Sandrine is receiving essential financial and training support. This assistance will enable her to make her business safer and more sustainable, improve her children’s well-being and safety, and achieve greater economic independence.

Liliane

Liliane is a separated mother of four children facing severe food insecurity, forcing the family to survive on just one inadequate and unbalanced meal per day. With a small income from occasional agricultural work, she struggles to meet even the most basic needs of her family. Through Okapia’s program, Liliane can finally access financial support and essential skills to start a small income-generating activity, laying the foundations for true economic self-sufficiency.

Blandine

Blandine is a young single mother whose daily life is marked by severe malnutrition. Without land to cultivate and earning only about €15 per month as a farm laborer, her family lives in a fragile and uncertain situation, struggling to meet even their most basic needs. Through Okapia, Blandine will receive education and financial support to help her start her own business, improving her living conditions and building a safer, more dignified future.

Mutoni

Mutoni is a single mother with a young daughter. Their lives are marked by severe economic and food insecurity, with only one meal a day—when available—and worn-out clothing. With a monthly income of around €3 from street vending, she is unable to meet her daughter’s basic needs. Thanks to Okapia’s support, Mutoni is receiving start-up capital to launch her own business, providing a more stable and secure livelihood.

Sandrine

Sandrine is a single mother with a preschool-aged daughter and lives in a situation of severe economic vulnerability. She works as a day laborer in agriculture, an unstable job that provides insufficient income to cover the family’s essential needs, especially food. Through Okapia’s development project, Sandrine received crucial financial and training support, which will enable her to start a small income-generating business, stabilize her situation, and improve wellbeing and autonomy for herself and her daughter.

Sandrine

Liliane

Liliane is a separated mother of four children who was forced to cope with severe food insecurity, leaving her family with only one meal a day, insufficient in quantity and lacking nutritional balance. With a modest income earned from occasional agricultural work, she struggled to meet even her family’s most basic needs. Through Okapia’s support programme, Liliane was able to fulfil her dream of opening a hair salon, a business that will help her build the foundations for genuine economic independence.

Mutoni

Mutoni is a single mother who faced extreme economic hardship and food insecurity. She and her daughter often survived on just one meal a day, when food was available at all. Their clothing was worn out, and her monthly income – around €3, earned through street vending – was not enough to cover even her daughter’s essential needs. Thanks to Okapia’s support, she was able to start a business selling sweet bananas, a traditional Rwandan variety typically eaten when fully ripe.

Sandrine

Sandrine is an unmarried mother with a preschool-aged daughter whose life was marked by severe economic vulnerability. She worked as a daily agricultural labourer, an unstable occupation that provided an income insufficient to meet her family’s basic needs, particularly food. With Okapia’s assistance, Sandrine launched a small food retail business, specializing in sweet bananas and avocados.

Germaine

Germaine is a single mother of two children who earned a living as a street vendor selling fruit and vegetables, an activity that was important to her, yet highly precarious. Through Okapia’s development programme, she opened her own food shop, where she sells beverages and prepares street food, including vegetable ibiraha and sweet mandazi, both traditional Rwandan specialties. This opportunity has enabled her to improve her children’s well-being and security while achieving greater economic independence.

The Partner

Okapia is a non-profit organization founded in 2014, born from the desire of a group of friends to create a meaningful and lasting impact.
Thanks to the professional experience and diverse expertise of its volunteers, Okapia works closely with local communities in Africa, particularly in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The organization provides support and assistance to women and children facing severe social and family hardships through education, community development, and employment initiatives.