The Women’s Opportunity Center tries to give female
a chance to become entrepreneurs selling to urban buyers. But first, they had to build a suitable headquarters, without the conveniences of building in the developed world. Rural Rwandan farmers, many of whom are women, lack a market for their goods, except in a city that’s a major trek away. The Women’s Opportunity Center hopes to solve that by becoming a central meeting place that splits the distance between urbanites who would buy the goods and those farmers; it will also serve as a place for these
entrepreneurs to incubate their businesses into more than just subsistence farming operations--with a little help, many can be family profitable ventures. But setting up a business incubator in a war torn third-world country means also solving old school problems like the generations of reliable power, plumbing, clean water, and adequate cooling first. That’s the second exceptional premise of the WOC, which is backed by Women for Women International, and recently opened near Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. “This was an
opportunity to merge design with development,” says Afshan Khan, the president and CEO of Women for Women International. The idea was to create both a place and business plan that “helps sustain local economies at the local level.”Read Full Story