The Role of Work in Society
Senior 1 · Entrepreneurship
The Role of Work in Society
Lesson 4 of 4
25 min
Every morning at five, Uwamahoro sweeps the same stretch of road in Nyarugenge for a cleaning company. Visitors often say that Kigali is one of the cleanest cities in Africa, but few of them ever see the people who keep it so.
When her son's class was asked what their parents do, he mumbled, "She just sweeps." His teacher asked the class a question: "What would this city look like if every sweeper stayed at home for one week?" The class listed blocked drains, rubbish in the markets, disease and lost tourists. By the end of the lesson, the boy was proud to name his mother's job. (An illustrative case.)
The sweeper, the farmer, the mechanic and the bank manager all do work that others depend on. None of it is shameful if it is honest and does no harm.
Definition
Dignity of work: the principle that all honest work deserves respect, and that people who do it deserve respect, whatever the job and whatever it pays.
Example: greeting the school cleaner as politely as the head teacher.
Definition
Decent work: work that pays a fair income, is safe, respects workers' rights, and treats men and women equally. The idea comes from the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Example: a sweeper given gloves, a safety vest and her wages on time.
Definition
Work ethic: a set of habits and values about working well, such as being on time, honest, careful and responsible.
Example: a mechanic who tells a customer the true cause of a fault, even when a bigger repair would earn more.
Definition
Child labour: work that harms a child's health, safety or schooling. Helping with light tasks at home after school is not child labour; keeping a child out of school to work is.
Example: a 12-year-old carrying heavy loads at a quarry instead of attending class.
Work is valuable far beyond the person doing it. The circles show how its benefits spread outwards.
| Who gains | How work adds value | Example |
|---|---|---|
| You | Income, skills, independence and self-respect | A young mechanic learns more with every repair |
| Your family | Food, housing, school fees, health insurance | A tailor's earnings pay her children's school fees |
| The community | Goods and services people need; shared projects | Umuganda builds classrooms and repairs roads |
| The nation | Production, taxes, exports and development | Tea and coffee workers earn foreign currency for Rwanda |
Definition
Umuganda: Rwanda's community work day, held on the last Saturday of every month from 8:00 to 11:00, when residents work together on projects for their area. The word means "coming together in common purpose".
Example: residents of a cell clearing a drainage channel together.
Umuganda is unpaid, but it has a value: what it would cost to pay workers to do the same job.
Worked example
One morning of umuganda (illustrative figures)
In one cell, 150 residents work for 3 hours. Suppose a hired labourer would be paid Frw 1,000 an hour.
Step 1: hours of work. hours.
Step 2: value.
Step 3: a year of 12 umuganda days.
One cell gives work worth about Frw 5.4 million a year to its own community.
Worked example
What a work habit is worth (illustrative figures)
A bakery opens at 6:00, when workers buy bread on their way to work. If the baker arrives late, about 20 early customers go elsewhere, each spending Frw 500.
Sales lost on one late morning:
If he is late 3 mornings a week for 4 weeks:
Poor punctuality costs the bakery about Frw 120,000 a month, and some of those customers may never come back.
Tip
Respect is free, and it is noticed. Thank the people whose work you rely on every day: the cleaner, the cook, the driver, the guard. It costs nothing and it tells them their work has dignity.
RISA (Rwanda Information Society Authority), "Umuganda - Rwanda's Community Work Day" (2019, under 2 minutes). Staff of RISA and the Ministry of ICT and Innovation join residents for umuganda, including rebuilding a home for a vulnerable family. Watch for the kinds of work done and who benefits from it.
Practice
Further reading
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the Nyarugenge case, the diagram, the tables, the worked examples, the activity and the practice items. The idea of decent work is the International Labour Organization's. Rates and sales figures are illustrative (2026).
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
