African Initiative for Mankind Progress Organization
Ceramic cooperative for the Batwa.
Founded in 2001 by members of the Historically Marginalised People (HMP, formerly the indigenous Batwa), the African Initiative for Mankind Progress Organisation (AIMPO) is a community-rooted NGO in Rwanda. AIMPO is one of the few organisations in the country dedicated to empowering HMP communities.
AIMPO believes in a future built on justice, inclusion, and shared opportunity. That’s why they focus on education, advocacy, and sustainable development—helping communities gain the tools and resources they need for lasting change. By opening doors to knowledge, economic participation, and political voice, AIMPO works toward a Rwanda where every person has the chance to live with dignity and shape their own future.
The Batwa – also called Twa – are one of the oldest population groups in Central Africa. For centuries, they lived in the tropical rainforests of the Great Lakes region, in harmony with nature and characterized by deeply rooted spiritual and cultural traditions. The equatorial forests offered them food, medicinal plants and places for cultural and spiritual practices.
Since the 1980s, the Batwa have been systematically losing their ancestral lands. Large-scale deforestation, national park foundations and development projects have led to violent evictions – often without compensation or alternative livelihoods. The most serious expropriations took place in 1994 in the Volcano, Gishwati and Nyungwe National Parks. The loss of their habitat deprived the Batwa of the basis for agriculture, gathering and their traditional crafts – with consequences to this day: attempts to switch to other forms of employment often lead to unemployment, social exclusion and economic marginalization.
With the construction of a modern pottery training center in the Bugesera district, AIMPO is promoting new perspectives for Batwa artisans. The aim is to develop traditional Batwa pottery in a contemporary way and to build an economically viable cooperative. The center in Nyamata serves as a place of learning and production. There, selected artisans not only acquire high-level craft skills, but also knowledge in business management, marketing and product development. They learn to combine traditional techniques with modern approaches and pass on their knowledge within the cooperative.
The current project phase (2023–2026) extends the scope to the Nyamata and Musenyi sectors. A total of 30 people benefit directly – especially young people and women who have basic reading and arithmetic skills. They receive access to high-quality pottery tools and targeted training to make their businesses economically stable and able to grow.
The main goals of the project are to create new sources of income, strengthen smallholder businesses, promote traditional craftsmanship on international markets, reduce poverty through economic independence and the long-term establishment of a resilient pottery cooperative. The Lemonaid & ChariTea Foundation supports the project in the construction of a ceramics center, the purchase of an energy-efficient kiln and the implementation of practice-oriented training programs.
Richard Ntakirutimana
Website: https://aimpo.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aimpo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mankindprogress.aimpo
