Rwanda was our first country and a great place for us to launch the business for several reasons. First, there is significant demand for floors in Rwanda because concrete prices are especially high in Rwanda given that it is a landlocked country. This leaves about 70% of Rwandans with no option but to live on a dirt floor and we wanted to give Rwandans an affordable alternative. Additionally, Rwanda is the second most densely populated country in Africa, so distributing our floors to lots of people quickly was relatively easy. Rwanda has also been a great place to figure out our logistical efficiency to be able to serve communities that are more spread out.
EarthEnable also jumped on the opportunity to scale up and increase its impact by expanding into Uganda when the government requested our support to combat the issue of jiggers facing the Busoga region. We have always seen Uganda as the perfect nation in which to begin scaling internationally. Given its proximity to Rwanda, Uganda was attractive as a second country because it is manageable for a Rwanda-based team to support.