In March 2020, I had a meeting with Kingfisher Journey’s team leader at Crema Café in downtown Musanze. During the meeting, I saw a list of names on the wall. My inquisitive-self wanted to know what the list was all about.

The tendency to poke my nose into other people’s business led to an encounter with Prince Kamari, the co-owner of the coffee shop. Our conversation revolved around the wall, the community and his journey as an entrepreneur. By the way, every entrepreneur has an interesting story to tell.

Crema Café was founded by Prince Kamari and Aidan Miller in October 2017. It didn’t take long before the coffee shop started attracting foreign tourists. There is something about coffee which is irresistible to these people.

It takes a substantial amount of money to set up a coffee shop. Fresh from their high school graduation, the two dreamers had nothing but determination when their idea was conceived.

The youngsters turned to Indiegogo, an American crowdfunding website, for financing. Their unconventional acquisition of capital worked, thanks to their deep connections in North America. Since the platform requires recipients to send gifts to their donors, a lot of work was done to create required items.

After the launch of the business, the names of donors who couphed up a significant amount of money were written on the wall. The Founders’ Wall is a recognition of generosity. It is a testament of belief in the validity of dreams.

Many small donors, who don’t appear on the list, extended their helping hand too. Prince and Aidan will kill me for calling them small. Let me rephrase this sentence: Apart from the names hanging on the wall, many other big-hearted folks made smaller donations —the unsung heroes of this campaign.

The author is a travel enthusiast on a tour of all 30 districts and 416 sectors of Rwanda. Follow his awe-inspiring expedition on Twitter @GeoExposure.