Last month, three Rwandan owners, graduates of the three-year BPeace<\/span> program, visited the United States during a trip that paired them with American businesses in their industries. The participants included Languida<\/span> Nyirababeruka<\/span>, who founded [Pompe<\/span> Funebre<\/span> Twifatanye<\/span>->http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZNTgQE0P_YU], a funeral home, after the [1994 genocide->http:\/\/www.unitedhumanrights.org\/genocide\/genocide_in_rwanda.htm].<\/p>\n Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span>, a former teacher who lost her job for political reasons, ran a tailoring business before 1994. The genocide claimed her husband and several family members, as well as her home and business. When it was over, she had to locate her three children, now in their 20s<\/span>. \u201cAfter the genocide, I started from scratch,\u201d she said, speaking through an interpreter. A United Nations contact helped Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> get a job as a cook, and she began to rebuild her life in Kigali.<\/p>\n The idea of opening a funeral home took shape after Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> spent an exhausting day helping a friend plan a funeral. At the time, there was no one business that provided all funeral-related items and services, like coffins, transportation and flowers. Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> said her friend was forced to \u201crun around, buying things here and there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> opened Pompe<\/span> Funebre<\/span> Twifatanye<\/span> in 2003, her friends and neighbors were uncomfortable with the concept of a business that profited from death. Now, many have become her customers, and she has two competitors. \u201cShe\u2019s changing their culture,\u201d said Craig Baker, a BPeace<\/span> mentor who works at Brady Funeral Home in Danville, Pa., which was the host of Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> for part of her stay. Mr. Baker met Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> two years ago when he traveled to Rwanda to share his expertise.<\/p>\n Today, Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> employs 10 people, including a recently hired carpenter who makes the coffins that she previously outsourced. Her business, which supports her family, had 2009 revenue of $26,435. Though she said that owning a business places her in Rwanda\u2019s growing middle class, Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> said her company must become more profitable.<\/p>\n She looked forward to learning from her counterparts in the United States. After leaving Pennsylvania, Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> visited [Cobble Hill Chapels->http:\/\/www.cobblehillchapels.com\/] in Brooklyn. Brady Funeral Home and Cobble Hill Chapels shared best practices and arranged field trips to the businesses that service the industry, including florists, cemeteries, headstone makers and a morgue.<\/p>\n During a meeting with the staff at Cobble Hill, Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> admitted she often reduces her prices out of sympathy for grieving families and then regrets it. Although fixed prices are virtually unknown in Rwanda, Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> vowed to establish them for her services and to make no exceptions. She was intrigued to learn that many American funeral homes offer interest-bearing accounts that make it easier for families to save for future funeral costs. Back in Rwanda, she plans to educate people to prepare for funeral expenses and to increase her chances of collecting them.<\/p>\n At Cobble Hill, Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> also learned about potential add-on products and services that could boost her profits, like rosary beads and casket engraving. While some practices (like embalming) would be too costly for her to implement now, she learned how to create printed extras, like prayer cards, using a computer. She left Cobble Hill with shopping bag full of samples, including thank-you notes and a guest book.<\/p>\n Ms. Nyirababeruka<\/span> hopes one day to pass her business on to her children. She is thinking about sending her son to a funeral services program that Mr. Baker attended in Pennsylvania and that they visited during her trip. Most of all, she said, she hoped her children will struggle less than she had.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last month, three Rwandan owners, graduates of the three-year BPeace program, visited the United States during a trip that paired them with American businesses in their industries. The participants included Languida Nyirababeruka, who founded [Pompe Funebre Twifatanye->http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZNTgQE0P_YU], a funeral home, after the [1994 genocide->http:\/\/www.unitedhumanrights.org\/genocide\/genocide_in_rwanda.htm]. Ms. Nyirababeruka, a former teacher who lost her job for political reasons, ran […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[75],"byline":[286],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-homenews","byline-adriana-gardella"],"bylines":[{"id":286,"name":"Adriana Gardella","slug":"adriana-gardella","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":286,"name":"Adriana Gardella","slug":"adriana-gardella","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}