#RepresentationMatters To USADF AWE Grantee Mutesi Gasana

Feb 12, 2021

In honor of Black History Month, USADF connected with USADF Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) grantee Mutesi Gasana of Ubuntu Publishers to understand what “representation” means to her and how USADF has impacted her enterprise.  

What does representation mean to you and the work of your enterprise?  
Representation to us means giving a voice to young people irrespective of their background: social, political, economic, and religious. Our work is to see every young person access the skills and opportunity to share their stories their own way without discrimination of any kind. 

What kind of impact is your work around representation having in your community?  
We have seen tremendous impact among our young people through their books, as they can now share the stories of their lives, experiences, and communities in their own unique way and style.  

How has USADF helped you?  
With USADF support, we can now extend Ubuntu’s TOTAFEST children's platform to many young writers in Rwanda. Additionally, USADF's technical skills training and community of other African entrepreneurs and grantees encourage us to do better, effectively.  

What type of support is most critical to scale your business?  
The support we need is primarily on the technical work of training the identified young talents to sharpen them for the future. To scale up our business, we need to have more funding to support more young people's access to reading and writing opportunities in Rwanda.  

What advice do you want to give other early-stage social entrepreneurs?  
Early-stage social entrepreneurs need to understand that their job is essential for their communities and the customers they are serving. They need to keep pressing on, knowing that it won't be easy, but it is possible. 

Mutesi Gasana is encouraging Rwandan children to read and write their own stories. Through Ubuntu Publishers, Mutesi promotes and elevates a reading culture in Rwanda by giving children and youth a platform to turn their language, creativity, and love for letters into books. Mutesi publishes the books in English, French, and Kinyarwanda to ensure language presentation.