Francine

Francine (36) is a wife and mother of 2 boys. She works as a bricklayer, steel bender and painter in the construction industry in Rwanda. She a trade union leader at construction union Stecoma.

Francine at work. Photo: Jan Banning
Text courtesy of Hope Kabuchu

Rwanda genocide

Francine's life is intertwined with the Rwandan Genocide, when over half a million people, mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were murdered during the civil war in Rwanda in 1994. Francine lost her father to the genocide.  At the news of his death, she and her family members, including the children, all ran for their lives, each going in a different direction. Children were separated from adults and Francine was unable to find her mother or other family members during the escape.  As a small child, she used to hide on the streets of Kigali for weeks on end, right in the middle of the civil war. She was taken in by strangers and as a 7-year-old child, she found what she now calls her second family. The new family, now lifelong friends, protected her during the war and helped her get through the reunification process, until two years later she found and was reunited with her surviving family members. Francine’s mother and young sister survived the genocide.

Genocide experience is the basis of perseverance

According to Francine, the genocide experience was the basis of her perseverance in her work and the desire to serve other people as a union leader. From an early age, her wish was to become a construction worker and she says that she even took a vocational training course in construction at secondary school. In 2013 she went to university for a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering, but she dropped out in the second year because she became pregnant with her first child.

As trade union leader inspiring women in construction

Francine has now worked in the construction industry for eight years as bricklayer, steel bender, and painter.  She joined STECOMA at a union meeting in the neighbourhood in 2015, even before she got her first job in construction. She has since been elected by her colleagues as secretary and deputy secretary for Nyarugenge district, which has approximately two hundred STECOMA members. The leadership training that she followed has given her self-confidence, something she did not have before. She is also on the organising and occupational health and safety teams of the union. Francine enjoys being a union leader because she learns a great deal and is part of an influential decision-making team. She enjoys inspiring women in the construction industry to become more confident in the workplace, because many of them are shy.

Difficult situations for women 

Women in the construction industry have to cope with difficult situations. They face discrimination at work, sexual harassment and sometimes violence. Francine says: I have encountered situations where women quit their job because of harassment. And sometimes husbands criticise their wives for working in construction, and this leads in the end to women stopping. On some construction sites you have to work at night and women find night shifts difficult.” On behalf of STECOMA, she negotiates with employers about changing rooms and toilets for women so that they do not have to share them with men.

Francine at home with her family. Photo: Jan Banning

Positive economic impact on her family

Francine is happy with her work in the construction industry. She prefers long-term work, which usually results in two long-term jobs a year. ‘’I’m lucky in that I’m attached to a construction company, and they usually phone me about work. Apart from that, the vacancies come from the STECOMA website or announcements”. According to Francine, work in the construction industry has made a very positive economic impact on her family and has improved their living situation.

A spirit of fighting, resilience and patience

Francine draws her energy from her experience during the genocide. It has shaped her life and given her a spirit of fighting for survival, resilience and patience. She tells us that after the death of her father and being reunited with her family, her mother took in many orphans who had been made homeless by the genocide. She remembers growing up with 18 children in the house, all of whom were cared for by her mother. As the eldest daughter, Francine took on a lot of responsibilities at an early age in order to help her mother, a reason why she now takes every opportunity she can to be of help to the workers and her community members. She is a member of the community committee that supports vulnerable families in finding work, a member of the board of her community savings and credit organisation and also vice chairman of the committee for genocide survivors in the Nayarugenge Sector. In Francine’s words: “Helping people with problems keeps me strong.”

Proud to be a female construction worker

Francine says that she is very proud to be a female construction worker and goes on to say that she was happy when her colleagues gave her the nickname "Engineer". Francine has many plans for the future, but her biggest dream is to one day go back to university to get her engineering diploma and then become self-employed. But she first wants to raise her children.