RWANDA - GIRLS INITIATIVE

By Peter Thorp, Head of School, Gashora Girls Academy
Kigali, Rwanda, 29 May, 2010 08:00 hours

Today is umuganda, the last Saturday of every month when everyone in the country is required to stop and participate in community work from 8:00-noon.  I’m told even President Kagame can be spotted occasionally, helping with neighborhood cleanup.  Saturday is typically the busiest market day, but this morning all stores and businesses are closed, and the usually jammed streets are empty save a very few vehicles whose drivers better have a good excuse if they’re stopped by the police.  I spot a few families working in the corn and sorghum fields that surround our housing development, and others sweeping by the side of the road.  Umuganda keeps Rwanda remarkably litter free, such a contrast to what we’ve all seen in other developing countries.  I remember how horrified Donna, Boone and I were one day at Tulum, the Mayan site in the Yucatan, to see the entrance road to this gorgeous and sacred site just covered in trash. The Rwandan government’s attention to detail is such that when you fly in to the country from Brussels, and you buy any duty free goods, you are not allowed the usual plastic bag for your goodies.  Here at the house, my roommate Al Bergman (a construction project manager from Seattle) and I are surreptitiously “bogarting” the few plastic sealable bags we brought with us from the States.

Last week I was fortunate to be invited—one of the few male muzungus in attendance—to the May 17 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment conference hosted by Rwanda.  Soozi, RGI’s Co-Founder, had the opportunity to speak on the panel alongside several other inspirational women.  Gertrude Mongella from Tanzania, known as “Mama Beijing” for the key role she played in the seminal Beijing women’s conference 15 years ago—spoke extemporaneously during her panel, endorsing President Kagame in his re-election, saying “Given how much President Kagame has done for gender equality [all legislation in Rwanda must meet a gender test], I will be surprised if any Rwandan women vote against him in the upcoming election.”  Thunderous applause followed, unusual in a land where applause is typically quite undemonstrative.  President Kagame who is clearly revered by African women throughout the continent for what he has done for Rwanda’s women, was the keynote speaker and introduced as “an honorary woman”!  We should all have such standing!

African women, who traditionally “ate last and least,” are increasingly at the forefront of change. The opening session included a videotape message from President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia (who was just at the White House with President Obama this week) stating unequivocally that “it was the women of Liberia how stopped the war in our country.”  Sheila Sisulu, the Deputy Director of the World Food Program noted that women produce 50% of the food in Africa, yet they get only 10% of the resources to do so. It only makes sense she added that when women control the granaries and the mechanized farming equipment (what she called “toys for boys”), “our countries will be food secure.”

Zainab Salbi, the founder of another extraordinary organization, Women for Women (and whose personal story as the child of Saddam Hussein’s pilot is told in Between Two Worlds) called for a strategic approach to women’s empowerment, including engaging the private sector in the movement to improve women’s status and more dialog with political leaders to engage more men in the dialog with the goal of making this more of a grass roots movement, like the civil rights and anti-apartheid campaigns. Focus on one message, she suggested, and her choice would be “no economic growth without women.”  Perhaps Sheila Sisulu summed up the new African female mindset best:  “Our goal is not just to join the ‘men’s club’ because if you join the club, you have to play by its rules.  We are here to transform.”

The commitment of Africa’s women in the fight for gender equality is inspiring, and it certainly validates  the work Rwanda Girls Initiative is engaged in as we build our school in preparation for the February, 2011 opening.