A basket full of ideas: the basket weavers
56 women, many of them widows, weave raffia baskets and plates in a cooperative in Kirinda – a traditional women's craft.
The vannerie club in Kirinda has existed since 1986. 56 women have joined together in a cooperative to practise raffia weaving. Most of them are widows from the areas around Kirinda. Some learnt the craft from their mothers and pass it on to the younger women – in Rwanda, raffia weaving has always been women’s work.
Working together, setting their own hours
Every Wednesday the women meet in their own women’s house in Kirinda to make raffia baskets and plates. They carry on working at home and fit the work in around their families, their fields and their housework. With the money they earn, they buy food and clothes for their families. Part of the profit goes into the cooperative’s shared fund; the rest is paid out to the women as wages.
Effort and income
- One basket takes a woman about two to three weeks.
- In Germany, a basket sells for between €4 (4,000 FRW) and €20 (20,000 FRW).
- Together, the women make around 150 baskets a month.
There is plenty of raffia in the region. Selling and transporting the baskets is the hard part: there are hardly any buyers in Kirinda, so the women take their baskets by public transport to the capital, Kigali. But there are no regular buyers there either, and the competition is fierce.
Baskets can also be bought through our association.
