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flourFLOWER exists to build bakeries and work centers in Rwanda in order to feed and give work to those facing fragile food supply and economic instability. We believe that creating things of beauty produces joy for both maker and receiver and elevates the human experience. Our line of artisanal products has been designed for that end.

Inspiration

Our bracelets are designed to be mixed, matched and stacked to create a look that’s as unique as you are.

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Why We Exist

flourFLOWER exists to build bakeries in Rwanda in order to feed and give work to those facing fragile food supply and economic instability. We believe that creating things of beauty produces joy for both maker and receiver and elevates the human experience. Our line of artisanal products has been designed for that end.

What We Teach

We work with teams on the ground who teach young men and women how to bake bread and run a bakery. We ensure that they are taught proper food handling, preparation, baking, packaging and delivery. Approximately twenty to thirty people work full or part-time in each bakery. Producing more than one million pieces of bread per year per bakery, each one feeds approximately 39,000 people each week, including 5,000 children. 

By recycling the flour sacks used at the bakeries, and teaching skilled, trained artisan sewers how to turn them into things of beauty, each bakery increases its likelihood of becoming self-sustainable, as does each sewer. Your purchase of one of our decorative flour totes had a direct impact on 700 lives. And more.    

We also teach women how to hand-sculpt clay into miniature works of art, each one. They learn about color, and proportion. And about quality. We teach them how to string these hand-sculpted beads onto bracelets. 

We believe that teaching work skills leads to self-confidence and self-reliance in its creators. And that designing, creating and receiving beauty elevates the human spirit. 

What We Make

We thought: what if we recycle these discarded flour bags and retrofit them into something beautiful that we could sell in order to buy more flour, feed more people and ultimately, build more bakeries and feed and employ more people?

The idea of one bag feeding 700 people stirred our souls. Not buy one, feed one. Buy one bag and you feed 700 people! And not only that, but for every bakery built, tens of thousands of people are fed and dozens more are employed. It was a business model worth fighting for.   flourFLOWER was born after we learned that each bag of bakery flour fed 700 people.

The idea that giving work is the best approach to ending poverty led us to look at ways in which we could best employ people with steady work in communities where work was needed most. Retrofitting flour sacks would keep women working. Making soft bags out of gorgeous African fabrics would, too. So would beading. We added these products to the mix. We are fanatical about quality, and the importance of training for excellence became baked into our corporate DNA.

FlourFLOWER exists to feed and give work to people in Rwanda. And to elevate the human experience by hand-crafting things of beauty.

Who We Are

Carolina Fernandez is a flower painter, author and CEO of flourFLOWER, a social enterprise that exists to elevate the human experience and give food and work to the people of Rwanda. A line of happy, floral-inspired women’s accessories is designed as are her paintings: to bring joy. She believes in finding beauty everywhere, and teaches people how to create more beautiful, meaningful lives through making things with their hands. She brings this mindset to her leadership at flourFLOWER, along with a background in business and finance, where she worked in wealth management as an advisor. She is completely immersed in issues of food equity and in developing opportunities for artisanal work and commerce amongst rural Rwandans. 

Ernie Fernandez co-founded flourFLOWER with Carolina. He has been a senior executive at a Fortune 50 technology firm for three decades as well as the Chief Information Officer of a leading academic institution. He champions climates where people are engaged, deliver results, and develop paths towards their own personal growth. He focuses on outcomes and delivering wins for our organization and its team. His professional strengths are linking strategy to execution. Matched with his personal strengths of compassionate leadership and a deep desire to work with disenfranchised people, he seeks to work collaboratively in order to achieve measurable results. Ernie brings a lifetime of executive leadership and a triple bottom-line approach to our team, along with a huge heart to move our mission forward.       

Why We Do What We Do

We first turned our attention to Rwanda after personal visits to the country exposed food inequities that we found incomprehensible. An invitation was extended to us in 2012 by an indefatigable nun: would we support her by building a bakery to feed those lacking access to a stable food supply. We did. By 2014, that first bakery was operational. Today, it produces more than one million servings of bread per year, feeding approximately 39,000 people every week in five surrounding areas. Bakeries two and three quickly followed as mini-retail outposts. Bakery four, the second large bakery production facility, was completed in early fall 2019.

flourFLOWER exists to build bakeries in order to feed and give work to the most vulnerable members of the human family. We create artisanal products that teach scalable skills that lead to self-confidence and sustainability to its creators. We believe that creating beautiful things elevates the human experience for both maker and receiver.

We do not partner with aid organizations, nor do we entangle ourselves with complex networks over which we have no knowledge or control of expenses or output.  Those organizations have their place. But we do it differently: we build things. Specifically, we build bakeries that feed and employ people. We build work centers that teach valuable skills. We believe that by giving a hand up, rather than a hand- out, we instill hope and provide opportunity for people to live well-crafted lives.

Profits do not go towards high administrative and staff expenses; they go towards buying more flour, more supplies and materials, more bakeries and more work centers.

We do not believe in complicated giving formulas or non-transparent disclosures. Our model is simple and straight-forward: after a bakery is up and running and workers are trained and self-reliant, we move on to the next geographic area of need.

Build. Feed. Train. Repeat. Its why we do what we do.

Host an Event

While we believe that e-commerce helps to get our story to a wider audience, we admit that people like to touch things. They like to “try on” our flour totes, even though they only come in one size! They like to open the zippers on our soft bags and peek inside. Women enjoy rolling our beaded bracelets over their wrists and stacking them. They want to ensure a perfect look. And a perfect fit. We get it! If you want to see our products in person, we ask you to consider hosting a private “bags & BAGUETTES” event at the location of your choosing. Your private home. A local art gallery. Your church. Your choice. Please contact us for details.   

Scatter Joy

“There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you are a happy customer, we want others to hear it from you! Please help us spread the flourFLOWER story. Tell your neighbor, your family, your friends. And perfect strangers! By so doing, you will be part of a global social revolution that virtually anyone can join. You just need to scatter joy. We believe that you will be scattering joy to your sister in Rwanda and that she will be scattering joy to you. And that scattering joy is one of life’s highest callings. 

Travel

Do you have a desire to see with your own eyes what we have been seeing with ours since we first visited Rwanda? If so, we would love to craft an immersive experience for you. We travel like locals: we stay in a renowned local hotel, one filled with rich history and surrounded by the natural beauty of Kigali. In rural Rwanda, we stay in convents, where the Benebikira Sisters grace us with unparalleled hospitality, moments of solitude and exposure to the unique wonders of the countryside.

Please contact us if you are interested in a custom travel experience. Your encouragement and financial support of the non-profit bakery projects would inspire us and scatter even more joy.