The Akilah Institute for Women

Last month, Akilah was selected to participate in The RaiseForWomen Challenge launched by The Huffington Post and the Skoll Foundation. The Challenge ended last Thursday and thanks to the generosity of our amazing donors, we raised $49,493 for the Akilah Scholarship Fund! A special thanks to the Grant Me The Wisdom Foundation, which doubled all donations on the final day of the Challenge. 

This fundraising opportunity came during an exciting time of growth for Akilah and the donations raised will go towards supporting Akilah’s newest intake of students who will begin their academic journey in September. Over 1,500 Rwandan women have applied to Akilah this year. Recently, 445 applicants were invited to campus to take the entrance exam and interview with a faculty member. 220 young women will begin classes on September 2, 2013. After three years of rigorous studies, they will receive their Business Diploma with a major in either Entrepreneurship; Information Systems; or Hospitality Management.

Applicants from across Rwanda take the entrance exam.

With the amount that Akilah raised during the RaiseForWomen Challenge, we will have the Akilah blog featured on The Huffington Post’s front page five times in one year and Arianna Huffington will mention Akilah in her own blog post. In addition, as Akilah is among the top 10 winners, a Huffington Post reporter will write a profile of Akilah. We are thrilled to have this important coverage of Akilah planned for the coming months!

The support of our generous donors makes it possible for these young women to receive the life-changing education that propels them onto a career path. We are deeply grateful for the continued support of our donors and the lasting impact they are providing each and every day for the young women of Akilah. On behalf of the entire Akilah team and student body, thank you!

Sarah Duhimbaze is in her final year at the Akilah Institute for Women and will be graduating with her Business Diploma in November.

Sarah (right) and Cecile, Akilah’s “student journalists.”

I wanted to share my experience of going to New York for the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

In addition to being an Akilah student, I am a journalist for Ni Nyampinga. Ni Nyampinga is a magazine and radio show for teen girls sponsored by Girl Hub Rwanda. In March, I traveled to the U.S. as a delegate and Ni Nyampinga reporter for the CSW.

Traveling to New York City to attend the CSW session, which took place at United Nations Headquarters, was something I never imagined doing. It was an incredible opportunity and I had an amazing experience sharing ideas with young women from around the world and learning about the various challenges women are faced with. I improved my public speaking skills and made American friends!

My journey to becoming a Ni Nyampinga journalist began during my first year at Akilah when my fellow classmate, Cecile (pictured above), and I were encouraged to apply for a new girl-focused radio program that was launching through Girl Hub Rwanda—an initiative of the Nike Foundation and the U.K.’s Department for International Development. After going through an extensive interview process, both of us were selected to be a part of the radio show made by girls, for girls. In Akilah classes, we learn good public speaking skills and grow the confidence to speak out loud. We’re able to take that learning and apply it to our work with Ni Nyampinga.

Sarah during her first year at Akilah in 2010.

I now serve as the voice for other women and girls through the Ni Nyampinga radio show. Akilah provides up to 90% scholarship support for our tuition, but I am able to use my income from working for Ni Nyampinga to help pay for the remaining tuition balance. My life has been impacted in such a positive way! I’m very grateful to Akilah for all they do for young Rwandan women, like me.

By: Mutoni Kayihura, Akilah Country Director

This month marks 19 years since the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed an estimated one million people in the span of 100 days, devastating the country and its people. While remembrance events are held globally throughout the month of April, it is in our land-locked East African country where tributes are felt at the deepest, most profound level.  As the Country Director for Akilah and a native Rwandan, I knew the importance of our students taking pause to reflect on this tragic part of our history.

Students bring flowers to the memorial site

Akilah’s faculty coordinated a visit to a genocide memorial site at Nyamata Church in Rwanda’s Bugesera District, a 45-minute drive south of the capital of Kigali. Arriving at the memorial site, we were met by Leon Muberuka, the church manager, who explained in painful and vivid details the atrocious acts that occurred less than two decades ago in the very church where we stood.

“Fight to live, live for them,” said Leon to Akilah’s young women, many genocide survivors themselves. It was a message filled with pain and grief that left us all speechless, despite my efforts to find a consolation message to comfort our students. As a Rwandan, I thought that I was relatively attuned to my country’s reality, but I had proven myself wrong—19 years later and the wound is still fresh for the survivors of the genocide against Tutsis.

The Nyamata Church has been preserved as a genocide memorial site.

We continued our walk through the memorial site in silence, passing old weapons, benches piled with clothes and blood stained walls. Approaching the altar we attempted to pray; yet we failed to find peace amidst chaos, death and despair. Instead, we lit our candles and stood in the stillness.

Emotions and memories weighing heavily on our hearts, Leon said: “Stay strong, let our beloved families lives shine in you, I know you will make them proud.”

In moments like these where our internal strength wavers, I am gratefully reminded of the incredible rebound my country has made. Overcoming the past atrocities, Rwanda has emerged as an example for hope, peace and innovative economic development. At Akilah, we are investing in the education of the most promising future professionals and leaders East Africa. With the Business Diplomas they receive, our graduates enter the workforce poised to help rebuild the nation they hold such optimism for. We know that educated women will create a ripple effect ensuring future social and economic stability for their families, communities and Rwanda.

Upon our return from the memorial site visit, I looked around at our students and the unbelievable reconciliation process they have undergone. More than ever before, I am convinced that through educating and empowering young women we will be able to talk about our history, write our stories of survival and make sure that future generations carry on the message of NEVER AGAIN. 19 years after the genocide against Tutsis, Rwanda is fighting to live and Akilah is proudly part of the fight.

Akilah is excited to announce that one of our students, Vestine Ukwishaka, has been selected to represent Rwanda in the 2013 Hansen Summer Institute on Leadership and International Cooperation. Vestine will travel from Rwanda to the U.S. in July to take part in this renowned 3-week leadership institute at the University of San Diego.

Vestine, a Hospitality Management major who will be graduating in November, went through an extensive application process, including letters of recommendation, academic transcripts, and a Skype interview. She was thrilled to learn that she had been selected to represent her country at this leadership program.

Akilah student Vestine Ukwishaka

“Before this I never even had a passport because [an opportunity] like this was not part of my dreams,” said Vestine. “But I know it would never have happened if it were not for the efforts and belief of Elizabeth [Dearborn-Hughes] and Akilah.”

Representatives from 16 counties will be participating in the program, including Morocco, Uganda, Ukraine, Israel, Russia, Argentina, Nepal, Ethiopia, Poland, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, Bosnia, Georgia, and the United States. Attendees will participate in hands-on classes in leadership skills, conflict resolution, and relationship building with practitioners from the academic and professional worlds. Throughout the duration of the program, representatives will have the opportunity to interact and learn from their peers and respective countries.

A driven and passionate student, Vestine says she looks forward to improving her leadership skills. “I’m most excited about improving my confidence in leadership and then to practice those skills in my community and country.” Talking about her own leadership goals, Vestine says she hopes to become a strong and approachable women leader. “My goal after graduating from Akilah is to be a role model wherever I work and to help develop my community, especially the jobless youth.”

Vestine and her fellow representatives will take part in a number of field trips and activities during the 3-week program, including a two-day workshop on social entrepreneurship at San Diego State University, the Coronado Island 4th of July parade, a Padres professional baseball game, a visit to the U.S.-Mexican border, San Diego Zoo, and an outing to the San Diego Mayor’s office.

Vestine is grateful for this life-changing opportunity: “My heart is filled with joy, my mind is now full of ideas and thoughts of greater opportunities I will now have in the future after this training.”

Congratulations, Vestine! We are very proud of you!