Bpeace in Rwanda January 2007

While Stephanie and Barbara broke away from the pack for an incredible day of gorilla trekking in the north, the rest of the team journeyed southward to Butare where we were amazed and impressed with the progress Symphrose has made on her hotel. The conference center, hotel, restaurants and surrounding gardens are nearly complete. The hotel offers a serene, lush setting which we enjoyed while dining on a delicious lunch provided by Symphrose and prepared by her new chef.

While Sabra and Lee stole away for a visit to the National Museum of Rwanda, Marla and Anne staged photo shots for the hotel’s website (to be prepared by her mentors, Matt and Mary in Australia), brochures and other marketing materials. And, they prepared a customer survey and strategized for business development, marketing and branding. Bpeacers in the New York area will have the opportunity to meet Symphrose at a Bpeace Rwanda Team meeting in April when she will be visiting New York.

All in all, the whole team was very impressed with the hotel and with Symphrose. There was significant progress made since we were last there – seven months ago. The hotel rooms, conference center, restaurant and bar were opened for business. She had four guests staying at the hotel and a few customers came by for lunch and late afternoon drinks. Symphrose served us breakfast and lunch during the day, the meals were quite good. Better than some of the meals we had in Kigali. She has hosted a few weddings and seminars as well. Symphrose hired a manager, who has nine years experience at the Novotel in Kigali. This is his first job as Manager. There hired 42 staff members who are on probation for three months.

Although the hotel is open for business, it’s not completely finished. A second restaurant – BBQ and bar – is not yet finished. It will be a very nice attraction when complete. There is space for a gift shop and business center. Symphrose is waiting for 10 computers to be delivered – four for the hotel and six for the business center. She will be getting wireless connection, a big competitive advantage considering that none of the other hotels in Butare offer wireless service. We advised Symphrose to hire a good IT technician for the inevitable problems.

We spent significant amount of time talking about the hotel’s brand identity. We discussed changing or modifying the name of the hotel – Le Petit Prince – to get rid of the French identity and create a brand image around having an authentic Rwanda experience. We recommended using local crafts to decorate the hotel and naming the hotel restaurants using local names. Symphrose welcomed this idea and relayed a local folktale about the area, which could be useful for the rebranding. We will provide Symphrose with three options for a new name and brand identity from which she can choose. We all agreed it’s important to decide soon before designing marketing materials. We recommended that Symphrose start developing relationships with hotels at the nearby game park as well as hotels and tourist board in Kigali. She asked for help in this area. Later this week, Anne and Richard will accompany Symphrose to a meeting with the tourist board. Once Symphrose sees a sample sales call, she will be better prepared to make sales calls on her own.

Symphrose’s biggest need right now is help in staff training and marketing. For the marketing materials, we collected pictures and information for development of brochures and a website. We would like to find another volunteer hotel consultant interested in helping Symphrose in these two areas


B2P down to the wire

Meanwhile on her last day in Rwanda, Wendy met with Emerita for a B2P interview. Emerita who, together with about 30 other women partners, owns and runs Maman Sportif, the conference center where Bpeace has been holding its workshops. Emerita and her partners spent their adult lives as refugees in Burundi, and returned to their homeland after the genocide. While in Burundi, Emerita and her partners formed Maman Sportif to teach literacy and handiwork to the Rwandese women living in nearby refugee camps. After the genocide, Emerita, her family and her Maman Sportif partners returned to Rwanda and have been continuing the Maman Sportif mission. They manage literacy centers throughout the country and fund them with the profits earned from conferences (including Bpeace workshops). As all working women, Emerita felt pressure at home. But she never felt the pressure of balancing her home and work lives. “When you see success, you don’t feel your burden.”