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Our Story

Founding Mission

At age 51, Dale Dawson left behind his successful career as a U.S. investment banker, entrepreneur, and investor to be available for whatever adventure God had for him to pursue. About that time, he met Bishop John Rucyahana, an entrepreneurial Anglican bishop from Rwanda, committed to helping his country reconcile and recover from the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. Bishop John invited Dale to visit his country to see God’s hand at work.

Between 2004 and 2007, he made numerous trips, each one deepening his love for the country, its people, and their ambitious vision for the future. He helped Bishop John raise money and resources to build the Sonrise High School for genocide orphans. In addition, he worked with three U.S. faith-driven micro-finance organizations to help found and to serve on the board of Urwego Opportunity Bank of Rwanda, one of the country’s largest and most innovation micro-finance institutions.

In 2005, Dale met Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, who invited him to join his new Presidential Advisory Council (PAC), a small group of international friends committed to helping Rwanda.

During the first PAC meetings, Dale learned that Rwandan’s vision and plan for building their country had been influenced by the extraordinary growth and development of Singapore and other Asian countries since the 1960’s.

He also learned about three ways for international friends to help accelerate Rwanda’s economic growth:

1. Expand Rwanda’s global network of friends

2. Encourage foreign direct investment

3. Create opportunities for Rwanda’s most promising students to get the education and experience needed to grow the country

In 2007, Dale founded Bridge2Rwanda (B2R), a U.S. nonprofit, to help Rwanda in all three areas.

Global Network of Friends

Since its founding, B2R has become a gateway to Rwanda, welcoming visitors from all walks of life—volunteers, entrepreneurs, investors, students, universities, NGOs, and more. Led by our Country Director, Tom Allen, the B2R team has hosted hundreds of guests, each one leaving with a deeper connection to Rwanda and its people. Some were so inspired that they decided to stay, lending their skills to the country as part of B2R’s “borrowed talent” program.

Building Businesses

B2R has been instrumental in bringing together business professionals, international entrepreneurs, and investors to help launch several for-profit ventures in Rwanda. These businesses have not only thrived but have also made a lasting impact on the Rwandan economy.

Urwego Opportunity Bank

A regulated micro-finance bank that introduced biometric identification for savings accounts. Originally owned by Opportunity International, Hope International and World Relief.

Rwanda Trading Company (Subsidiary of Westrock Coffee)

A modern coffee mill, washing stations and exporter that brought market competition and higher prices for coffee farmers in Rwanda. Originally managed by Matt Smith, former B2R Business Manager. Owned by Scott Ford , former CEO of Alltel Corporation.

B2R Services

Business advisory services and financial analysts training firm, originally formed and services provided by Clay Parker and Dan Larson

Acacia Accounting Associates

An accounting services and training firm for international clients in Rwanda. Launched by B2R – Operated, acquired and renamed by Stephen Miller

Zamura Feeds

Rwanda’s first commercial feed mill constructed by Blayne Sharpe, B2R Business Manager; egg farm launched by Tom Phillips of Memphis, TN; and broiler producer established in partnership with the University of Tennessee. Owned by Africa Sustainable Agriculture Project, a US nonprofit created and led by Donnie Smith, former CEO of Tyson Food.

Rwanda Presidential Scholars

One of B2R’s earliest education initiatives was the Rwanda Presidential Scholars Program. From 2007-2018, B2R partnered with Hendrix College and its Chairman David Knight, the Rwanda Ministry of Education, the Clinton Foundation and 20 other U.S. colleges and universities, to provide four-year scholarships to Rwanda’s top math and science students.

The Rwanda Presidential Scholars Program, which was funded by the Rwandan government in partnership with the U.S. universities, helped over 400 Rwandan students earn engineering and STEM degrees at U.S. schools.

B2R Scholars: Bursting Bottlenecks

In 2011, at President Kagame’s request, B2R launched the B2R Scholars Program to “burst the bottlenecks” preventing Rwanda’s most promising high school graduates from being awarded full scholarships to universities abroad. Co-founded by three young Americans—Anna Reed Phillips, Blayne Sharpe, and Richard Siegler—this program quickly earned a reputation for excellence and "getting results."

From 2011 to 2021, 332 B2R Scholars secured more than $90 million in scholarships to attend over 90 universities, primarily elite private schools in the U.S.

These scholars, selected through a rigorous process following their high school graduation, moved into a house, where they spent a transformative year together, studying, working, praying, applying to colleges, and celebrating each others wins.

The BRIDGE: Launching Careers

As more B2R Scholars began graduating from universities abroad, B2R recognized the need to support their transition back home. B2R hired Yves Iradukunda, a Rwanda Presidential Scholar, to help the scholars launch their careers in Rwanda.

Today, Yves serves as Permanent Secretary of Rwanda’s Ministry of ICT and Innovation and on the B2R board of directors

In 2015, Yves recruited Happiness Uwase, the first B2R Scholar to return home. Together, they built a robust career development program that has provided hundreds of internships and forged relationships with over 300 Rwandan employers. Happiness assumed responsibility for the Career Development team when Yves departed for another career opportunity.

After several years providing career support to B2R Scholars, in 2019, B2R reorganized the Career Development team into The BRIDGE Talent Services and named Happiness its Managing Director.

Today, The BRIDGE offers career support and job placement services to all high-capacity Rwandan university students and young professionals with competitive English and digital literacy skills.

In addition, The BRIDGE now provides executive search and job placement services for a fee to international and Rwandan employers seeking mid-level and senior-level professional talent.

B2R Farms: Transforming Agriculture

In 2018, B2R received a gift of six hectares of Rwandan farmland. About the same time, B2R Scholar, Rosine Ndayishimiye, returned home determined to launch a career in agriculture after graduating from Babson College and turning down a job with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Boston.

B2R sent Rosine and a few others to Zimbabwe for a Foundations for Farming’s (FFF) “train the trainer” course on implementing its conservation agriculture practices (CA). Rosine returned to Rwanda “on fire” to teach and promote FFF to farmers in Rwanda.

By implementing FFF methods on its demonstration farms, B2R Farms has achieved extraordinary results compared to most Rwandan farmers – 2-4 times average crop yields with 45% less labor and the elimination of soil erosion.

Equipping Young, Agriculture Professionals

Between 2020-2023, B2R Farms offered short practical internships to over 200 university graduates, most of them recent graduates of the University of Rwanda-College of Agriculture. Following the internship, most graduates found work in the agriculture sector as farm managers, FFF trainers and with agriculture employers.

National Rollout of Conservation Agriculture

In 2022, B2R Farms began partnering with the Rwandan government to teach and promote FFF's conservation agriculture practices to all 2.4 million farmers in Rwanda. B2R has trained all the government RAB agronomists, district and sector agriculture officers and over 400 champion farmers. The Minister of Agriculture has set a goal of planting CA promotion plots in all 14,837 villages in Rwanda.

Training Fellowship of Agriculture Field Agents

In 2024, B2R Farms launched a new 12-month Fellowship Program for at least 120 Rwandan university graduates a year. The fellowship will empower B2R Farms with its own private nationwide network of agriculture field agents.

The fellowship effectively creates a private network of agriculture field agents under B2R Farms’ direction.

B2R has also purchased 10 hectares of farmland close to Kigali to establish a major FFF training center and demonstration farm called “Land of Goshen”. The training center will to offer FFF “train the trainer” courses to governments, NGOs and other organizations across Africa.

Isomo: A New Chapter in Education

In 2020, B2R appointed two B2R Fellows, Chaste Niwe and Norris Kayitare, to serve as the Managing Directors of our education initiatives, which they renamed Isomo – meaning a reading and a lesson in Kinyarwanda.

They significantly increased the impact of the B2R Scholars Program by recasting it as the Isomo Academy and increasing the number of students supported each year from 30 to 80 scholars.

They reduced the cost per scholar by replacing the residential, gap-year for high school graduates with 8-week residential boot camps during school breaks and starting with students completing S4 (10th grade). Isomo has also significantly increased the number of scholars attending universities in Rwanda, Africa, Europe and Asia, as well as North America.

To significantly scale our impact, Isomo has begun offering its teaching and counseling services well beyond the Isomo Academy.

Rwanda's Ministries of Education and ICT & Innovation recently engaged Isomo to provide university access support to Rwanda Coding Academy graduates. In 2024, the Rwandan government requested B2R to launch the Isomo Graduate Scholarship Program to help several hundred Rwandans earn Masters and PhD degrees abroad.

In 2024, B2R launched Isomo Circles, an online pilot program to significantly improve English proficiency and digital literacy in Rwandan high schools at scale. In partnership with the Ministry of Education, Isomo Circles is specifically targeting the sixteen Teacher Training Colleges, upper high schools that prepare most of Rwanda's primary school teachers.