Global Communities and TOMS Creating Opportunities in Rwanda

Global Communities and TOMS Creating Opportunities for Vulnerable Families in Rwanda

Global Communities and TOMS have partnered together to distribute new shoes to children living in vulnerable communities in Rwanda. We are using the shoes as an incentive for families to participate in savings and lendings group training through our USAID Rwanda Higa Ubeho program. The children of families who complete the training are provided with TOMS Shoes. This incentive encourages families to complete the training and for more families to sign up, which helps them to improve their resilience to economic shocks.
The TOMS distributions are being conducted in conjunction with Global Communities USAID funded programs in Rwanda, which are focused on, for example, financial literacy, livelihoods, and resilience to economic and health shocks. For example, the USAID Ejo Heza (“brighter future”) program aims to improve the livelihoods and food consumption of 75,000 of the country’s very poor, particularly women. USAID Ejo Heza works in the areas of agriculture, health & nutrition, financial services, and literacy. USAID Ejo Heza helps by building the capacity of low-income households, giving them access financial services necessary to grow their enterprises while assisting financial service providers to develop and deliver effective products to the rural market. The program also supports financial literacy, integrates nutrition messaging and promotes kitchen gardening to support more nutritious diets.

A visit made by members of the TOMS team to Rwanda last year to take part in a shoe distribution is featured in the TOMS’ spring catalogue. View the catalogue here.
Global Communities has been working in Rwanda since 2005 to support vulnerable households with programs have focused on providing health education, vocational training, support to orphans and vulnerable children, access to care and other types of critical services. Learn more about our programs by visting the Global Communities Rwanda website.