Last month our youngest Ambassador, Shanice Mutabazi, conducted a Q&A session with 64 young women at Maranyundo Girls School in the eastern province of Rwanda. Two panellists and a moderator assisted Shanice with the group's engagement on the topic of youth leadership in Rwanda and on the continent.
The panel consisted of Muragwa Bienvenue, a co-founder and executive director of the Root Foundation for Youth Development which supports the education of street children in Rwanda, and Dr Grace Kansayisa, a prominent Rwandan surgeon. It was moderated by Faithful Abaho who once taught at Maranyundo Girls School and is now with Student Affairs at White Dove Global Prep.
The goal was to provide these young women with an opportunity and safe space to ask these young, passionate professionals any questions they had, particularly on the topics of leadership and entrepreneurship.
Shanice organised this event after identifying a lack of career guidance as one of the key challenges facing young Rwandans. As she is passionate about gender equality, Shanice tells us that it was particularly important to her that Dr Kansayisa be there as her life story has the capacity to demonstrate to these girls that, as young Rwandan women, “There is nothing they can’t do on this earth.”
As a recipient of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, Muragwa’s vision is “one day living in an Africa where youth are engaged in community issues and believe in their creative potential to solve them.”
As the moderator, Faithful believes that school talks are a unique way to reach out to students and educate young minds. She told AMI afterwards that she was inspired to see such a platform organised by a young person – at 16, Shanice is our youngest Ambassador.
AMI would like to thank the panelists and moderator, and most importantly the 64 young participants. We agree with Faithful that school talks are a crucial intervention.
If you are interested in inviting us to your school, take a look at https://www.africamattersinitiative.com/schoolsprogram.
You can also learn more about The Root Foundation at https://www.rootfoundation-rwanda.org/about-xs0jb
