Project information

The team of University of Manchester students will volunteer alongside Rwandan volunteers in sub-teams. Each team will focus on a different area of Azizi Life’s work. 

• Storytelling through media
• Data gathering
• Enterprise development

Each of the teams will have an impact on Azizi Life’s aims, adding value to their core work and creating a stronger platform to build on in the future. Projects will also include a focus on environmental sustainability.

Projects for 2026

Storytelling team:

This team will create a documentary style video that covers the growth of Azizi Life since around 2018 which is when the organisation started to experience dramatic growth. The documentary will also cover the Team Rwanda volunteers' involvement over the previous 7 years. It will show the journey of Azizi Life's physical spaces, and growth in projects, staff, artisan partners and community impact. The documentary will be used to promote their work in Rwanda and tell the story of Azizi Life.

Data gathering team:

This team will gather data on Azizi Life's community impact projects and find ways that they can share it for maximum impact. This year Azizi Life would like to find out about the people who completed their adult literacy programme. They want to explore whether the studies impacted their lives and then create reports, case studies and other materials to demonstrate impact which can be used to support future fundraising efforts. Volunteers will create surveys to capture data, make contact with previous participants, gather stories and photos and turn these into useful materials. They will also explore grant opportunities which could be used to fund future projects.

Enterprise development team: 

This will revolve around supporting Azizi Life to market their new guesthouse, experience days, hiking routes and café in Byimana. The idea is for the team to work on everything needed to promote and sell Azizi Life as a tourist destination, including making a business plan, exploring options for booking platforms, and creating marketing materials.

Environmental sustainability:

Minimising the impact on the environment is at the heart of Azizi Life's values and something that is woven into each of the projects above. We are therefore also looking for students with an interest in environmental sustainability who may be able to contribute this to the projects.