Born and raised in Rwanda, Diane Mukasahaha trained in nursing and public health, specialising in palliative care. For sixteen years she worked with Rwanda’s Ministry of Health, USAID and other institutions — ultimately as National Coordinator of Palliative Care — advocating for pain medication access and holistic care.

Frustrated by how little funding reached the programmes she cared about, she asked herself a different question: what if she could build a business that funded opportunity directly? In 2018 she founded DIKAM, starting from a home workshop with a single pedal-operated sewing machine and two employees she trained herself.

Diane Mukasahaha, founder and CEO of DIKAM Fashion Ltd

Today DIKAM runs industrial garment production in Kigali — uniforms, workwear, medical scrubs and private-label garments — with a workforce that is overwhelmingly female, and a training centre that turns first-time jobseekers into professional machinists. In 2025, Diane stood on the Africa’s Business Heroes stage in Kigali as one of ten finalists chosen from more than 32,000 applicants across the continent.

Her journey has been marked by resilience, vision and an unwavering commitment to making a difference in her community — and it is stitched into every garment that leaves this factory.