The Republic of Rwanda in Africa has recently achieved an economic recovery that has been called a miracle in Africa, following the genocide in 1994 when over 800,000 people were killed due to ethnic conflict. On the other hand, in Rwanda, nearly half the population lives in poverty and the number of single mothers is a growing social issue. As many girls become single mothers in their teens, they are not fully educated and they have difficulty finding jobs.

To improve the lives of these deprived single mothers, Ms. Mio Yamada (age 41) works to create a place where they can work and receive vocational skill training. In Rwanda, she operates KISEKI, a social enterprise implementing a variety of support businesses. The concept is to create a society where mothers can live happily in their communities. Her enterprise has 35 staff members. All of them are Rwandans employed locally, 32 of them are women, and most of them are single mothers.

Ms. Yamada moved to Rwanda with her family in 2016 due to her husband's job. Soon after that, she opened a Japanese restaurant in Kigali, employing single mothers. It made her realize the harsh reality that they were facing. She has a strong desire to eradicate the poverty and this has been the force driving her support activities.

KISEKI is engaged in a broad range of businesses. Dress for Two is the most unique one, having been started in 2018. A Rwandan person and a Japanese person jointly purchase a piece of African kitenge fabric, 5.5 m long and about 1 m wide, and share it 50/50. The Japanese person bears a greater portion of the cost of the fabric (12,000 to 24,000 yen) and the Rwandan pays around 200 yen. The fabric is made into a wrap skirt or wrap dress, depending on the buyers' requests. As clothes are produced in Rwanda, single mothers can earn money from sewing. To facilitate this, they opened sewing training centers as a job training support measure in 2022. The first graduates finished their training in October 2023. Currently, the training program has 15 students.

To support mothers and children, they began operating a kindergarten in 2018 and opened a day-care center and a kids' cafeteria in 2022. They started teaching IT lessons using tablets and the internet. They also began to implement The First 1000 Days* program which includes workshops for expectant and nursing mothers.

They have also concentrate on human resource development to facilitate the development of the next generation of people. The Volunteer Intern Program is a fee-charging volunteer program that provides young Japanese people who are interested in social service activities in Africa with a variety of local volunteer experiences. Participants get involved in volunteer activities at KISEKI facilities, stay with a host family or go on tours of places such as disadvantaged neighborhoods or agritourism tours. Many Japanese students and working adults have participated in the program. A total of over 500 people have participated in the program despite its temporary suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They previously invited paid Japanese interns when they commenced the program in 2017. In 2018, they started to charge a fee for participation. The basic fee is 500 dollars per week. Some participants stay in Africa for several months or more. The program financially supports the business activities of KISEKI.

"We Japanese people have a lot to learn from the ways of life of African people. KISEKI wants many to experience this. It provides a place of learning. We are waiting for you to join us," said Ms. Yamada. For this purpose, she is planning to lecture and provide lessons to elementary, junior high, high school, and college students around Japan online in 2024 and by vising them in 2025.

*1000-day intensive care program focused on child nutrition and education during the period from pregnancy to the age of two which is critical for child development.

Their support activities are original and wide ranging, including support for people's lives, the facilitation of employment and the education of children. How they provide support is well thought out. They have built a win-win relationship between the people providing support and those receiving it. In addition, they should be highly praised for their great contributions to the development of human resources, including young Japanese people in the raising of the next generation of people. More than anything else, we were moved by her energy and positive attitude toward life. She demonstrated her resilience in the face of numerous difficulties, being betrayed and deceived many times in the course of her activities.