MENYA UMWUGA*
Skills that open doors, and opportunities that change lives.
From tailoring and crochet to future trades shaped by market demand, vocational training equips women with the skills and confidence to earn, grow, and plan for the future.
*Learn a Trade (Kirundi)
Where skills become careers
Many women and out-of-school girls leave school without the skills, qualifications, or opportunities needed to earn a stable income. Menya Umwuga helps them learn practical, marketable trades, connect with employment opportunities, and build businesses of their own.
Many of the women producing Agateka reusable sanitary pads today first learned their trade through Menya Umwuga. What began as vocational training became employment, income, and long-term economic opportunity. The connection between Menya Umwuga and Agateka demonstrates what is possible when skills training is linked to real economic opportunities.
440
program graduates secured jobs or started businesses after graduation
110
program graduates employed full-time in Agateka production
Economic opportunity strengthens everything else.
Vocational training is a key part of our integrated response to period poverty, because when women earn an income, they are better able to afford healthcare, support their families, invest in sanitation improvements, and provide for their children.
Menya Umwuga complements our household economic empowerment efforts by helping women build specialized skills that create even greater opportunities for income generation and employment.
"Life used to be very difficult. My husband and I struggled with extreme poverty. There were times my children and I went to bed hungry because there was not enough food, and my husband controlled what little we had. But since I started working at SaCoDé, things changed. When my husband saw my first salary, he said to me, ‘My wife, this is really a good thing. Keep doing this work.’ Today, our lives are different. We even have electricity at home because I bought a solar panel with my income. And people in my community respect me because they know I have a job."
Gloriose
Program graduate and Agateka tailor, in Muyinga