When The New Forests Company (NFC) started operations in Kitabi, Nyamagabe District, Denise Karabukirwa had completed her secondary education with no job but was able to get employed at the company.
More than four years with NFC, the 27-year old is now married and has garnered vast experience in pole related business.
Karabukirwa is currently the Dispatch Supervisor at the Nyanza pole treatment plant and the Vice-President of the association of staff members at NFC.
She is the representative of staff at the plant, a role that involves advocating for fellow members and ensuring that workers are well catered for.
“When the company started, I was there,” says Karabukirwa, “we started operations with planning in Kitabi and was among the few employees the company first recruited and when the plant was moved to Nyanza I came along.”
“Working with the New Forests Company has been life changing experience for me,” she notes.
Karabukirwa started working with The New Forests Company in 2012 in the planning department, moved to pole sourcing and when they moved to Nyanza she became the receiving supervisor and worked her way to poles preparations, treatment and now at the stage of the Dispatch Supervisor.
She has conducted various trainings both in-house and outside trainings, notable among those is the Quality Management System trained by some international trainers. Karabukirwa is now a certified auditor in the poles business able to put her skills at work at NFC or anywhere else.
“The company has empowered me, now I possess recognizable skills,” Karabukirwa says smiling.
Gaining skills is not the only benefits from the company but among the few pecks gained along, she narrates, but getting the job helped me with my family and has been able to enroll back to school.
Karabukirwa is now pursuing her bachelor’s degree in Rural Development at Université Catholique du Rwanda (UCR) in Butare town, Huye District.
