Et si fabriquer et vendre des glaces permettait de soutenir la cause des femmes au Rwanda ? C’est le pari d’Alexis Miesen et Jennie Dundas, les créatrices de Blue Marble Dreams. Alexis Miesen et Jennie Dundas sont les propriétaires d’une fabrique de glaces bio à Brooklyn (New York). En 2010, elles partent au Rwanda dans l’idée d’ouvrir une nouvelle enseigne sur place. Le but ? Permettre à des femmes rescapées du génocide de travailler, de s’épanouir et d’être indépendantes financièrement. Pari réussi pour les deux associés qui s’apprêtent à reproduire le concept à Port-au-Prince à Haïti. Leur initiative a d’ailleurs été racontée dans « Sweet Dreams », un documentaire primé dans plusieurs festivals. Bien joué les filles ! We’re Alexis & Jennie, friends and co-founders of Blue Marble Ice Cream – NYC’s first and only purveyor of certified organic ice cream. Welcome! Did you know that Blue Marble is also the nickname for planet Earth? We thought it made an appropriate name for our ice cream business, as it symbolizes our values, commitments and aspirations as people and as a business. We founded the company with the hope of making taste buds happy and hearts feel good. We began with premium organic dairy and the best ingredients available to create the most honestly delicious scoop possible. Next, we built a business that cares for its customers near and far. As we’ve grown, this simple mission has remained at the heart of all we do. Two years into our ice cream adventure, we founded Blue Marble Dreams, a unique nonprofit venture to support the joy and prosperity of communities in need through the unlikely medium of ice cream. We build ice cream shops with women in areas recovering from conflict or natural disaster with the belief that these sweet, small enterprises can help revive both the spirit and the economy of a community. Through Blue Marble Dreams’ first venture, we partnered with Ingoma Nshya – a cooperative of women drummers in Butare, Rwanda – to open Inzozi Nziza (Sweet Dreams), their community’s first-ever (and forever finest) ice cream shop. Inzozi Nziza’s doors opened in June 2010. Since then, this special shop has brought together dozens of Rwandan women from both sides of the 1994 genocide and equipped them with training, jobs and a sustainable income. It has also supported countless local farmers and producers, bolstered the local economy and provided the community with a welcoming place to gather, connect and heal. Today, Inzozi Nziza is a fully self-sustaining enterprise, owned and operated by the cooperative. A critically acclaimed documentary film, entitled Sweet Dreams, chronicles the making and meaning of Inzozi Nziza and introduces the world to the remarkable women behind this unique venture.