Gender Equality Rwanda Project #26541

Let's Help 100 Girls Lead!

by MindLeaps

Project Report | Jun 18, 2018
Girls LEAD: Students Become Next Generation of Teachers

By Eleanor Milburn | Assistant Director

Dancers from Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, DRC, & Guinea

Our Girls LEAD 2018 programming continues in Rwanda providing dance, IT, business training, and academic acceleration courses for the students who joined in January. For our girls who have graduated from MindLeaps, they are now in school, moving forward in their acacdemic education and vocational training. Two of these girls from our Girls LEAD program have a particularly exciting summer...

Ten of the best trainers from MindLeaps programs in Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and Guinea convened in Kigali, Rwanda, on June 10th. For the next three months, they will study, train and live together in an immersive cultural experience mixing different nationalities, languages, religions, and talents. These trainers will learn MindLeaps curricula and pedagogy to become better equipped to bring the MindLeaps program to their own communities when they return to their home countries. The dancers come from Kenya, Uganda, Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda. Representing from the Girls LEAD program are Rwandans Sifa and Gisele.

Sifa grew up in a very poor family in Kigali. She had to drop out of school because her father could not pay for her school fees. When she joined MindLeaps, her confidence level started to grow. Soon, Sifa began excelling in her dance and English classes. She also was always kind and welcoming to new students. She worked hard to reintegrate into school and has now joined the prestigious White Dove Girls' School in 7th Grade. Because of her skills in dance, talent in working with others, and hard work, Sifa was selected to join our cohort of international trainers that will learn MindLeaps' curriculum and perform this summer at an international arts festival.

Presently in NYC, five dancers are being trained to become MindLeaps dance teachers. MindLeaps programs are growing across the world. We are developing new teachers to be able to staff our programs. These five dancers - from Rwanda, the US and Canada - have spent an intensive two weeks learning the MindLeaps curriculum and pedagogy. In addition, they met their future teammates – the ten African trainers, including Sifa and Gisele – through a Skype session on Wednesday, June 13th. (Photo within.) One of these trainees, Darlene, is particularly excited to return home and work with MindLeaps Rwanda. She is a great teacher and will be a wonderful role model to all of the students in our Girls LEAD program.

We are so proud of our students in the Girls LEAD program. They are becoming leaders at MindLeaps and in their communities!

MindLeaps Students Turned Teachers, Sifa & Gisele

Skype with MindLeaps Trainers in Africa and USA

Newest MindLeaps Trainer, Darlene

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Mar 19, 2018
Announcing Our Newest Donor: AIC

By Rebecca Davis | Executive Director

Our 2017 Class of Graduating Girls

MindLeaps is thrilled to announce our partnership with AIC in Rwanda! AIC is a women’s organization that supports local projects in Rwanda. This month, MindLeaps will receive support from AIC to purchase sanitation kits for our new girls enrolled in our program.

These sanitation kits include essential items to meet the basic needs of each girl attending our program, including: shoes, a toothbrush, soap, toothpaste, a dance uniform, and sanitary napkins. Vulnerable school girls that joined our program in February will be presented with their special, individual sanitation kit as a reward for their commitment and ongoing hard work to improve their lives through MindLeaps. In almost all cases, this will be the first item ever “owned” by these girls.

An increase in primary school drop-out rates is one of the new issues facing the Government of Rwanda. Ensuring that girls have their basic health needs met is an important factor to changing this trend. MindLeaps is helping vulnerable in-school girls this year through our program and the delivery of sanitation kits to help improve school retention and performance rates.

Last month, I had the chance to meet some of the new girls in our 2018 program at MindLeaps in Kigali. I was amazed to see that all of these girls were eager to practice their English and wanted to know if they could "take extra classes" at our center. It was a clear reminder that the opportunity to learn is never taken for granted in Rwanda - or by the children who need it most.

MindLeaps is grateful to all of you – our GlobalGiving supporters – for making it possible to enroll more girls in our program this year. With the new support of AIC, these girls will have access to our programming to improve their emotional well-being and tangible materials to safeguard their physical well-being. Together, these girls lives are improving – step by step.

Thank you.

Sanitation Kits Given Last Year

Girls at MindLeaps

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Dec 20, 2017
Performances and Graduations in Rwanda

By Eleanor Milburn | Special Programs Manager

We are so proud of our class of new girls who joined MindLeaps in 2017. They have completed MindLeaps' full program and are ready to move on to school in January 2018. Throughout the year, in addition to MindLeaps' dance and IT classes, they were also receiving academic acceleration courses from teachers at the prestigious White Dove Girls School. These courses helped them catch up in all subject areas: English, Social Studies, Science, Math, and Kinyarwanda, so that they can hit the ground running when they enter school in 2018.

We are now finding sponsors to support them at the school that is right for their age and education level. Some will go to primary school, others to secondary school and still others will enroll in vocational training. The girls are looking forward to returning to school and pursuing their career goals - like Joyeuse who wants to become a doctor, and Francine who dreams of becoming a secondary school teacher. You can read biographies of our students who are ready for the next phase of their lives here: http://mindleapssponsorships.weebly.com.

In addition to their academic readiness, the girls also showcased their wonderful progress in their dance classes with two end of the year performances:

On November 4, several of our students performed at Heaven Restaurant. This gave them the opportunity to collaborate and showcase their progress. The performance was staged by American dancers Chase Johnsey and Carlos Renedo of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo.

In December, our girls performed at a local center for street boys, Les Enfants de Dieu. You can see the fabulous choreography and great partnering work in this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiVR78KjTic

Entering school in 2018 is a huge step for our girls in exiting off the streets and entering fulfilling careers.

Thank you for helping our Girls Lead!

Performance at Heaven Restaurant

Performance at Les Enfants de Dieu

Partnering Work

Future teacher, Francine

Links:

Performance at Les Enfants de Dieu

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