After more than a decade in a rented house, Azizi Life is building its own multipurpose, solar-powered facility in Muhanga, Rwanda. The new building will give our craft, experiences, beekeeping, and literacy teams room to grow, while moving us closer to our goal of becoming a carbon-neutral organization. Here is the journey.
Home Sweet Home
Azizi Life was born in the offices of Food for the Hungry in the small city of Muhanga, Rwanda. Since that time in 2008, we have continued to work in that same space, a large, six-bedroom rented house with gardens and annex rooms. It’s been a lovely place to grow up, and the team has done a marvelous job of utilizing and maximizing the space available.
Multiplying to Fullness
As you know, we have been praying for multiplication, and God has been answering. Azizi Life is growing in staff, artisan partners, order scale, volume and pace, packing logistics, and product collections.
Our beloved headquarters is now bulging and overflowing. As renters, we are not allowed to make significant structural changes to the property, and consequently we are often using rooms for multiple purposes. Our craft shop is in the same room as our office, one of our storerooms doubles as a fumigation room, we dye sisal from a bike shed in the back yard, honey processing is done in a converted bedroom, and candle making in an outhouse.
In truth, we have now reached a point where the lack of space is impacting what we are able to achieve. Each part of the Azizi Life group needs more room and better-designed areas to improve efficiency and grow our work to the next level. The security and flexibility of our own property will enable us to boldly move forward in our vision of multiplying our impact.
Our Vision for Growth
Each part of the Azizi Life group wishes to do more but is hampered by the space available. The Experiences team wants to create a cafe and guesthouses where visitors can be hosted, plus a dedicated area for drumming and dancing lessons. The crafts team wishes to increase product development with dedicated workshop areas and specific spaces for dyeing sisal, fumigation, packing, and storage. The Bible study team would like a meeting space and a prayer room. The adult literacy team wants space to run more teacher training. The Beeutiful Creations team needs clean processing areas for honey bottling, candle pressing, and lip balm and soap manufacturing. And everyone would like a dedicated shop area, separate from the office, to better display all the work we do.
Praise God. We found land, kind donors have already agreed to cover the main building costs, we have the architectural designs, and construction starts soon.
The Path to Our Acre
In 2017, our leadership team was approached by a group of donors who were seeking out a project that would lead to multiplied impact. So began a process through which God led us to design our own facility and search for a suitable piece of land. After many ups and downs, in mid-2021 we finally purchased a one-acre property. The donors covered the cost of the land as well as contributing a large sum toward the main building costs. We are so thankful. Now we have completed the architectural designs, and construction should begin soon.
Environmental Sustainability
At Azizi Life, one of our values is environmental stewardship. We want to be good caretakers of God’s creation, and we aim to continue to advance in making this a reality in our product offerings, packaging, and operations. Azizi Life has a long-term goal of carbon neutrality. A sustainable business in Rwanda has to plan for that from the ground up, which is why the new building is designed around light, airflow, and solar power.
The growth we have experienced in the last few years is phenomenal, working with over 60 staff (21 full time and 40 part time) and 800 artisans and beekeepers. However, with that growth comes an increasing environmental impact. We are now ordering and exporting more baskets, bowls, and candles than ever before, and with each handmade product comes a carbon footprint. We do not want the artisans to rise out of poverty into a community that suffers from the effects of climate change, so we have been trying to counteract these effects. For years, through our Renewable Resources program, we have provided financing for renewable resources like solar lamps, fuel-efficient stoves, and water filters. These are all designed to reduce the amount of fossil fuels burned in rural communities of Rwanda.
Going Solar
Our operations use electricity, and as we expand our services in the new location, our power needs will increase. However, with the intelligent design of the new building (maximizing light and airflow) and the use of solar power, our expectation is that we can dramatically reduce any need to use the main power grid. This will not only save us money but will also reduce our carbon footprint and environmental impact. In a region where electricity is relatively expensive and often unreliable, solar power provides a self-sufficient solution that allows operations to continue despite any interruption of service. By shifting to solar, we take another bold step toward becoming a carbon neutral organization.
