Simone Bommeljé(sitted) with her Rwandan partners
Early this year, Simone Bommeljé was in her Amsterdam home when she met her friend whom they had connected since the last twenty years and the later told her “Girl, I’ve seen your birthplace. I want to show you mine.”
Simone made it a priority and came to Rwanda in January, and she discovered a beautiful country with beautiful people. She felt most at home much as she found several other friends, which made her wonder how she could come to stay.
Initially, Simone thought she would visit and go back home, but while in Rwanda, she hoped to have another opportunity to spend more time in the country, and it worked.
“I received a request of a person who wanted to rent my apartment for three months, and this was a good opportunity for me. I went home but returned to Rwanda in April for another three months,” Simone said.
This time allowed Simone to connect with young Rwandan women who do the things she personally love doing and those include one Aline, a tour guide who is working hard to make an economic breakthrough in her career.
Another lady she met was Annualite Uwayezu, a Life coach, Founder & Executive director of Chase a Better Tomorrow.
The latter is a non-government organization that empowers children who have experienced or are experiencing traumatic childhoods to transcend their circumstances, build resilience, and create a brighter future through comprehensive support, education, and community engagement.
Simone was touched by the courage of Annualite who, through hair braiding income, manages to earn a living for the organization and charity for vulnerable families.
This attracted her attention, much as in her career of business promoter and communicator, Simone loves working with women who want to defy the odds. She ‘brings them on stage to allow the world to see them and have a thought on their endeavor.”
“I was most touched by a family of five children and their grandmother which she takes care of. That story is heartbreaking and I was touched to hear that she helps many in her Jabana village, Gasabo district.”
Simone Smiles Foundation is Born
The connection with Aline, Annualite and other Rwandan women who have their passion to defy the odds in business and/or social enterprise convinced Simone that she needed to start something which would allow her to support them.
She registered her organisation back home, and called it Simone Smiles Foundation in July this year, with an ambition to pass a smile to someone, so that they can also pass it to others.
“The case of a family in the place of Annualite touched me. The lady in her seventies is the head of a family of grandchildren whose mother was killed by her own husband two years ago. This is a desperate family, but when I visited, we played, laughed and everyone was happy. That was a great conviction that a smile can change narratives,” she said.
“I love to make people smile. Even if it’s short. I know it’s maybe not even helping anybody. But smiles, in my mind, are contagious. So if I smile, I give my smile to you, you might pass your smile on to somebody else.”
Simone said, that since it is her passion to work with women, that makes her smile and then she hopes she can pass that smile to them.
She does it by promoting what they do on website, social media, and public gatherings, and supporting resource mobilization efforts.
“ Well, maybe we can go make Rwanda smile. And that means, of course, not only smiling. But more deep,” she said.
Some of the projects already executed with courageous women include an awareness campaign of the women’s businesses at the just concluded UCI championship in Kigali.
“During the UCI we had a photo booth, mental health awareness, a fashion show and boxing exercises, all from the women who are trying different projects,” Annualite Uwayezu said.
With Chase Better Tomorrow, Simone Smiles Foundation is also working on a water harvesting project which will provide 135 water tanks to a community of Ngoma sector in Rulindo district that used to travel long distance to fetch water.
The project is estimated to cost 45,000 Euros, equivalent to Rwf 75.5 Million.
That is also part of giving people a smile, and the Ngoma sector residents need to smile too.
