Somehow it’s already been a month that I’ve been back in Rwanda. It’s been a great first month back – jumping into my new job, reuniting with friends, celebrating my birthday, exploring new bars and restaurants around town, furnishing my room, watching lots of Modern Family, etc.
As for my new job, I’m working at Eos Visions, a social enterprise that pioneers experiential educational travel programs across East Africa (Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, DR Congo). To quote our website, “Eos Visions offers exceptional educational and enlightening travel experiences in combination with first-class destination management services in East Africa.” Eos Visions essentially provides an avenue for international professionals, students, advocates, donors, and interested individuals and groups to learn, exchange expertise, and make an impact in subject areas like health, law & governance, business, gender & children, and the environment & energy.
Eos Visions’ overall philosophy is to help people contribute to sustainable development by going beyond regular tourism or even service learning and helping facilitate engagement in constructive, meaningful, responsible and unique ways that support local development initiatives and empower local hosts. As for the name, “‘Eos’ is the name of the Greek Goddess of the Dawn. Mythology has it that she brought light to mortals as well as immortals. We desire to be part of Africa’s new dawn and to create visions that bring light to our international guests as well as the people of the African continent.” What makes Eos Visions a social enterprise, and why I was particularly drawn to it, is that it strives to achieve a ‘more-than-profit’ model that adds a strong socioeconomic value generation component in all aspects of its business and work.
As a junior business development consultant, I work in a few different areas. So far, I primarily conduct research and develop the content for thematic tours in subject areas related to development, governance, public policy, and post-genocide reconstruction. Part of this entails identifying local partners and stakeholders and acting as a liaison between them and Eos Visions. My other main area of work is in international outreach and marketing of tours to potential clients abroad. An exciting part of the job is that the whole team goes on test runs of tours before officially including them in itineraries, so I have had the opportunity to travel around Rwanda and go on several test tours already.
One of the tours involves a visit to a women’s basket weaving cooperative where visitors have the chance to watch how baskets are made and then try some weaving themselves, before buying copious amounts of beautiful banana leaf products.
Mesmerizing
So if you or anyone you know is looking to travel to an exotic destination and/or have an enlightening learning experience in East Africa, you know where to find me.
Let me know if you’ll be in Kenya before late February! Good luck!