Love and Hands began in 2015 in Kigali, Rwanda, as a children's literacy initiative, initially serving around 100 children. Our primary goal was to support out-of-school children through English literacy classes and scholarships. However, as we became more involved with the communities, we discovered that education was just one of many challenges they faced, including healthcare and food security. We realized that by offering solutions to these additional challenges, we were unintentionally causing harm.

Communities became conditioned to rely on us instead of finding solutions on their own, resulting in them presenting us with an ever-growing list of problems. In 2017, we adopted the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach, shifting to empower communities to use their strengths and resources instead of providing solutions for them.

We transitioned to not just working with children but training parents to identify their own resources and use them to address their community challenges. They started income-generating activities using their own resources and they went on to solve challenges beyond education. They invited us to the wider community and we trained close to 500 women in Nduba & Kinyinya, Gasabo District who are working in about 36 community enterprises. We are no longer running the literacy program, because the parents in this community took full ownership through their ABCD projects.

Today, we work with communities across Rwanda by helping them achieve sustainable development by leveraging their own resources and expertise. With the support of partners like the Mastercard Foundation & Segal Family Foundation, we have been able to train Youth across Rwanda, including students from the National University of Rwanda, IPRC South, and Rural youth across 5 districts in Rwanda including Kamonyi, Ruhango, Kirehe(Mahama), Nyagatere, Rwamagana, who have formed over 100 community enterprises using their own resources.