World Dance for Humanity
Bridges cultures through movement and helps people in need by supporting small, sustainable, grassroots projects locally and in the developing world, specifically Rwanda.
Betsy Stivers
Betsy Stivers
20+ years P&G experience in Manufacturing & Product Supply, North America (Long Beach, New York, Cincinnati with global responsibilities)
Betsy currently serves as the VP of the World Dance for Humanity (WD4H) Board of Directors and is the Chair of the Business Committee. Betsy implemented a business planning and results tracking system that successfully guided the first four co-op businesses in Rwanda into profitability and will be applied across all 25 cooperatives. Betsy is currently working with the Program Director to improve the measuring and tracking of the businesses, all of which are reportingprofits.She and her husband, Gary Simpson, also a P&G Alum, sponsor three high school Rwandan students, one of whom just began her first year of college.
“We are witnessing an incredible transformation in the lives of the people we work with in Rwanda as they acquire the resources, skills and confidence to become self-sufficient. Our scale (8,400 people in 25 communities) and our direct and personal approach is delivering remarkable results.” Janet Reineck, WD4H Founder & ED
WD4H’s goal is to establish a thriving and sustainable business in each of their 25 rural Rwandan cooperatives. Home to 8,400 extremely impoverished Genocide survivors and their families, WD4H serves primarily women many of whom are poor farmers, unwed mothers, former sex workers and/or AIDS patients and is establishing a business in each of their 25 cooperatives that will raise their standard of living and give members a chance to develop their skills and participate in a successful enterprise.
To learn more about World Dance for Humanity, click here to visit their website.
WD4H has helped its co-ops establish successful businesses like a bakery, sewing, a café and a tilapia fish farm. Several of its other cooperatives are in various stages of developing their own businesses. Working closely with the Program Director and WD4H staff, they research and plan projects to benefit the communities. After plans are vetted with the Board of Directors, funding is sought and once businesses are underway, they are monitored closely to ensure success. Training is also provided (e.g., agriculture, business, leadership) which has had a large and positive impact in the way the co-operative members approach their work and their lives and how they plan for the future.
Funding from the 2016 P&G Alumni Foundation Grant Award of $14,600 was used to hire a business coordinator to develop business skills among the co-ops, conduct 3-day business trainings for three representatives from each of the 25 cooperatives focusing on management, leadership & basic business skills, and small business support for all three cooperatives.
The 2017 P&G Alumni Foundation Grant of $18,000 will be used to reach even more co-operatives. Funds will cover conducting 3-day trainings for 80 co-op members and supporting three cooperatives’ new businesses and their business coordinators. Each of the three new business co-ops has developed approved business plans which will impact the lives of 8,400 individuals:
- Tubehotwese Sewing Business
- Umuryango Mwiza Bakery
- Cokawy Milk Goat Business
“Go and Do That” Co-Op Expands with New Bakery
A single mother struggling to keep her family alive, Anastasie was alone and isolated tending to other peoples’ cows to earn a living for her family. Anastasie joined the Genda Ugire Utyo (“Go & Do That”) co-op and was accepted as an equal member of the community. She now earns a living in the co-op’s collective farming enterprise and all (especially the cows!) are appreciative of Anastasie’s special skill: singing her “cow poems” to the beloved animals.
Genda’s projects and co-op structure is so successfully that it has given birth to a new co-operative: “Good Family.” This new co-op – led by a group of high school and college students – will be starting a bakery in 2018.
