Last weekend, American Ambassador Stuart Symington and Rosette Rugamba, the Deputy CEO of Tourism & Conservation at the Rwanda Development Board, cut the ribbon at the Akilah Institute for Women to celebrate the official opening!

"Our first 50 students began classes on February 2nd. Words cannot describe how exciting the last few weeks have been. It feels like a lifetime ago that we began this journey that has led to the Akilah opening. After the event, Akilah was featured on the front page of the Rwandan newspaper New Times, as well as Rwanda Radio and Rwanda Television." - Akilah Institute

This is what some of the students had to say when asked about their memorable event:

Valentine K, "The most memorable event of my life is when I gave a speech on behalf of all Akilah students . This was a very important day in my life because I felt so happy and I was congratulated by many people. Being able to meet Mrs. Rose Rugamba was such a privilege because she is one of my role models. This day made me feel as a future leader in my country and confidence in my life. I can never forget such a day."

Nadine, "The most memorable event of my life: I will not forget my parent and genocide in Rwanda. I remember my father who died and I will not forget Akilah Institute for women because they help me with a scholarship..."

Carine, "The first of my memorable events of my life is when I lost both my parents and my young sister during genocide. The second is when I found my family members after war. The third is when Monique called me to tell me that I succeeded in English exam for admission..."

Rose, "My memorable event in my life is when I reached the Akilah Institute for Women, I feel comfortable. And another thing is that I will get more knowledge from Akilah Institute for women and in the future I will bring innovation to my country."

Charity, "Most memorable event of my life is when my Dad refused to pay for me my school fees since 2006."

Florence, "The most memorable event of my life is that my parents died in Genocide . I will never forget them because when I need some support from someone I think about them because they were good parents..."

Euphrasie, "The most memorable event of my life is the time people killed my mother and left me alive even if we were together with my mother. So I will not forget it in my life and I thank God a lot for what he has done to me since that time and I thank him because of the continuity of my life."

Francine, "The most memorable event of my life is when I met my sister after the genocide. After the Genocide, I thought I am alone in this world and in my family and when I met my sister it was a miracle for me to have a sister who can tell me many things about my family because I was a baby I did not know the members of my family, the name of my parents. So now I have a sister."

"The Leadership and Ethics Course for the foundation year is based on the development and implementation of an Action Plan Project. When we received the GFC Girl Action Team Coach Tool box I was very excited as it provides guidelines and activities which make it straightforward to deliver and the students easily understand it.

Students have been divided into 6 groups and each group has identified a root cause to a problem they want to tackle in their communities. This week students begun the process of writing out their projects and it is really exciting to see young women who had lost hope for their own lives begin to work on creating a difference in their communities.

Some of the root causes the young women are tackling include, Lack of creativity & innovation as a cause of unemployment, Ignorance as a cause of malnutrition among children, alcoholism and drugs as a cause of Conflicts between husbands and wives, prostitution as a cause of HIV & AIDS.

The students are very excited about that social change projects. It was amazing to see each group make their commitment to their project basing on the Land of Commitment exercise."
-Irene Kagoya, Leadership and Ethics Instructor