Living a purposeful life can be interpreted differently; to some, it may be moving towards one’s goals and self-fulfillment, and to others, it may mean using whatever means one has at their disposal to make a difference in someone else’s life.

Vania Odelice Ineza, a multi-entrepreneur, falls in the latter category and is pushing for a positive impact on young girls and women, especially school dropouts, by helping them reach their own full potential.

Aiding the deprived

Dancilla Uwimana, a beneficiary of Ineza’s training and Kinyinya resident, dropped out of school in 2019 after losing her father who paid her school fees.

She stopped in senior five. Luckily, one of Ineza’s friends connected her to the initiative. Since she was skilled in tailoring, Ineza gave her a job right away in 2020, even before she registered her company. Dancilla currently hopes to go back to school at some point.

Like in the case of Uwimana, seeing a number of girls drop out of school due to pregnancy, among other issues, didn’t sit well with 25-year-old Ineza. Some of these girls were raped, and others lacked the finances to look after their children.

"Many of these women and girls have taken a regress to life and have refrained from pursuing their education, hence lacking skills to qualify for jobs.

"I wanted to provide a way that they, and others who are unemployed, could start small businesses and cater for themselves financially,” she says, adding that the idea came to her during her second year at the university in 2020, but she couldn’t put a finger on a specific skill.

The start

Covid-19 happened, and the world came to a standstill, with uncertainty looming everywhere. However, for her, lockdown boredom awakened a dormant love for fashion. She loved sewing and redesigning her attires, so she thought of getting more skills.

Ineza reached out to a professional tailor in May 2020 for lessons. By then, she was pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in accounting, but schools and universities had paused studies so she had a lot of time.

The tailor would go to her home in Gasabo to teach her to sew better, and as she continued to learn, she put aside some money from her job in sales and procurement with a local oil firm.

"I would pay the tailor Rwf 80,000 per month. In about six months, I was well-versed in stitching shirts, dresses, and skirts. This is when I was certain of equipping jobless girls and women with the same skills,” she says.

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Ineza is now the owner of Ivo, a clothing brand that makes multi-convertible clothes, (transforming one item into many different styles). She started her company six months after her short sewing course.

With a starting capital of Rwf 100,000 that she used to purchase a sewing machine, Ineza says that with time, she was able to buy more—allowing her to teach more girls.

In total, Ineza has taught 10 girls and women, some of whom are employed at her store, while those with capital have gone on to start their own businesses.

She believes that if she acquires more equipment, more will benefit from the training.

"Ineza reached out to me in October 2022 through her friend who knew the initiative. Though I had some skills in tailoring, there weren’t the best for a professional endeavour. She trained me for two months and employed me immediately,” says Chantal Mzamwitakuze, a single mother of five and resident of Gisozi, who works for Ineza.

Mzamwitakuze toiled to feed and educate her children with the little earnings she made from vending fruits and vegetables in Kigali.

Now benefiting from the training, she earns a weekly salary and takes better care of her children.

Ineza notes she chose her style technique because it is low-cost as one can buy a dress and wear it in three or more ways. She is also the only one doing such designs in Rwanda, currently.

For her, this works best if a person is travelling since it allows them to pack just a few clothes.

Hold-ups and way forward

Ineza is of the view that her business hasn’t picked up as well as she wants it to possibly because some people are not familiar with her style.

She notes that she put together videos and pictures demonstrating all the ways the clothes can be worn for anyone who may not know just by looking at the attire on a hanger.

Ineza hopes to take her brand to the next level, in and outside Rwanda, and continue to empower more young women, and perhaps start a training centre.

She invented a service known as ‘come and get it’ where clients choose the material, watch the whole sewing process, and go home with their finished product. This is an idea she came up with when she thought of people who would need quick services.

Mzamwitakuze says that the opportunity is a great one; she lives a happy life and goes home with bread and other things for her little ones.

Interior and outdoor décor

Ineza is not just about clothes, she has also put her creative eye to good use by recycling old liquor and wine bottles to make interior décor accessories.

About three months after starting her clothing line, she realised that bottles were being thrown anyhow around bars and some shops, leaving the place disorganised.

ALSO READ: Interior designer on using local resources to boost Made-in-Rwanda

So she searched on YouTube for how to refurbish them into useful items and is now also an interior and exterior designer, making flower vases, lampshades, candle holders, small flower gardens, wall decorations, and so forth, from the bottles.

Ineza collects some of these bottles from rubbish, and also buys from bar owners.