Year of the Staff Update
Through our 2022 focus on Year of the Staff, we were able to give some much needed benefits to our staff, including industry-standard raises, health insurance for our full time staff, and professional development.
"To me, it indicates that they recognize, respect, and value the time and effort I put into my work. I am appreciative of everyone for wanting to provide me with the tools I need to continue the work DuHope began."
-Diane Uwamahoro, Program Manager
We used some of the funds to get all of our full time staff private insurance. Rwanda has a national insurance medical system, which is affordable to most, but is an overwhelmed system and doesn’t always have access to specialists. Giving our staff private insurance is a great honor and relief for them.
"First of all a big THANKS to those who gave towards the Year of the Staff fundraising campaign. It means a lot because I can overcome financial obstacles, like these days the prices are high on everything, and still am able to pay my bills and get medical treatment at a low price."
-Pauline Uwimana, Production Manager
One of our full-time staff recently got married and is covered under her husband’s insurance policy, which freed up some funds to invest in the healthcare of our other staff and the artisans. All of our artisans went for a comprehensive health check, revealing signs of malnutrition and related conditions in most of our artisans. Both, artisans and all staff, are being scheduled for eye exams.
"The artisans feel so grateful they can now determine whether they are ill or not, as opposed to earlier when they could only guess. At first they felt like it was really intimidating because they didn’t consider themselves as people who should get eye exams or even treatment. To their understanding it was an illness for rich people. Getting eye exams encouraged them to go for treatment which is not something they considered before. The doctor’s feedback helped them understand how ill they are and prescribed them medicine. It was such a relief to those who didn’t find themselves sick."
-Ange Masengesho, Social Worker
Our staff has spent a lot of time during 2022 in training. Those trainings include:
- Healing the Wounds of Trauma
- Hope Rising
- Social Work Mentorship and Coaching
- Spiritual Development
- Our key staff have US-based industry mentors who meet with them on a weekly or monthly basis through zoom
- Best Practices workshop with partner organization, Hagari.
Our Rwandan staff is the key ingredient to reaching all 10,000 survival sex workers in Rwanda. We have to continue to lift them up and make sure they have everything they need to do their jobs. The Year of the Staff demonstrated to them that people from all over the world are investing in them and the kingdom work of DuHope.
Thank you for your investment, continued prayers, and support!
The DuHope Team