No matter how you slice it, bread can change the world. Please join Heather Newell as she presents The Women’s Bakery, a social enterprise based in East Africa. Launched in 2014, The Women’s Bakery (TWB) is a social enterprise committed to educating and empowering women. TWB offers 150+ hours of vocational business and nutrition education so women are equipped with skills to launch and profitably manage bakeries. Since its inception, TWB has launched 11 bakeries and trained 51 women and 3 men, with an additional 10 women and 5 men trained by the end of 2016. At the Kigali bakery in Rwanda, women report new incomes of $36/monthly – a 240% increase from pre-training reported incomes of $15/month. TWB products range from banana-peanut muffins, to carrot loaves and honey twists, to beet breads. Each slice of bread contains at least 4g of protein and is sold at an extremely affordable price. The presentation will discuss about the inception of TWB – started from work in the Peace Corps and will also cover TWB in Rwanda and East Africa today, and how investing in women’s education and business is transforming the country on a larger level. Heather is the U.S. Program Office for TWB. Her work focuses on advocacy, fundraising, and program development – especially for TWB’s pilot program in Denver with refugees. She is also a returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Rwanda, 2011-2013) with extensive experience in education, writing, and cross cultural programming. She lives in Denver and maintains strong ties and regular travel to Rwanda.