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Azizi Life is a social enterprise in Rwanda committed to sustainability, collaboration, and putting people first – artisans and customers alike. Founded in 2008 under the international NGO Food for the Hungry, Azizi Life has become a bridge to connect hardworking artisans to the global market.
Azizi Life partners with over 25 independent groups in Rwanda - over 400 artisans... and growing! Rising from the horrors of genocide, artisans from all backgrounds have joined together once again through their art. With their fair trade income, parents are caring for the health, nutrition, and education of their children. Families are building better homes. Women are rising out of crippling dependency to become contributors in their communities. Their artisan partners have a vision to be leaders for wholeness in their community, and Azizi Life is privileged to partner with them.
On the wall of Pascasie Mukamuligo’s home in Rusatira, Huye District, hang photos of two men. These, Pascasie explains, are her brothers. They, along with more than thirteen other family members, died in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. They were hunted and killed, most likely by their neighbors. But Pascasie is determined to be a different kind of neighbour. Tall and dignified, she chooses to stand for peace. To pray for peace. To work for peace.
Pascasie is the president of the Peace Basket weaving cooperative. Under her leadership, community members from opposite sides of the genocidal conflict have joined to support one another in their art and their lives. The group meets together once per week to weave baskets and discuss issues like family, health, and reconciliation. And Pascasie has not stopped at that. Several years ago, she accepted an invitation by the government to go into the local prison to teach offenders – some of them thieves, vandals, and murderers of 1994 – to weave for peace and to support their families. Some of those men joined the Peace Basket Cooperative after their release.
In 2016, the Reconciliation Year, Pascasie was selected by the Rwandan government as a hero in unity and promoter of reconciliation.
And what is Pascasie’s vision for her group and community? We must continue to work for wholeness. We must continue to pray for peace.
Rwandan Peace Baskets are an essential part of the Rwandan culture - woven into the fabric of everyday life as vessels for food and grains, household catchalls and gifts for important ceremonies. One baskets takes around 6 days to make. Watch one of Azizi Life's artisans at work on one.
