Like many women in Rwanda, the 1994 genocide was full of tragedy and heartache for Placidie Murebwayire. Unlike most women in her country, she was able to use the hardships from that time to motivate her to become a successful businesswoman.
To accomplish this, however, took a reunion with her long-lost mother, a return of her faith, and a resumption of her education.
Placidie’s 2-year-old son was killed in the genocide. She was attacked and buried alive while pregnant with her second child.
After the genocide, Placidie became depressed. She tried to keep occupied by opening a tailor shop in 1995, but it soon closed. She felt demoralized and unmotivated.
“I couldn’t stop thinking that we, Rwanda, were all lost in our sorrows,” she said sadly.
What started to lift Placidie’s spirits was finding her birth mother, whom she never knew.
After the genocide, people began to stream back into the country from Uganda. Placidie’s friends told her they had seen her mother in that East Africa nation. After a long search, she happily found her mother. It gave Placidie the confidence that hurdles could be cleared, that nothing was impossible and, in fact, anything was possible.
This renewed spirit was further buoyed by Placidie’s decision to start attending church again.
“It was a miracle I survived” the genocide, she said. “It must have been for a reason, for a purpose.”
The mother of four, who also cares for eight orphans, realized that there were people in her life who depended on her. She started thinking of ways to open her business again.
While a good student, her adoptive family could not fund her education. Instead, she asked a Congolese neighbor to train her in tailoring.
In 2004, she opened a tailor shop on the outskirts of Kigali. But while she was handy with a needle and thread, she was not as adept at handling the business’ finances. She mixed up her personal and business books, losing track of her profits and losses.
Then Placidie was selected to participate in the six-month Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Entrepreneur Program, held at the School of Finance and Banking in Kigali, Rwanda. Placidie learned about things such as finance, accounting, marketing, writing a business plan, and how to get a loan.
At the end of the six months, Placidie was one of two grand prize winners in the program’s business plan competition and awarded $5,000 by the William Davidson Institute, which operates the training for Goldman Sachs. She plans on using her prize money to buy more machines to improve the quality and volume of her work.
Since enrolling in the program, Placidie has seen her profit margin increase 20 percent.
She has hired an accountant and is looking to add to her current staff of five.
Placidie’s life, thanks to many factors, has improved markedly. And, happily, she no longer feels lost in all her sorrows.