Empower women in Africa through higher education!

These Numbers Have Faces believes strongly women are the secret weapon to fighting poverty. We work hard to make sure that at least half of the students in our University Leadership Program are women. Currently, 57% of our students are female. These young women are poised to lead their communites and countries to a new era of peace and prosperity. Through access to a university education, Leadership Development Workshops, entrepreneurship opportunities, and our women’s mentorship program, we empower Africa’s brightest young women to cultivate thriving communities. We also recognize that, if we are working to empower strong female leaders in a culture where gender roles remain very traditional, we must also work with the young men to learn how to work well with and alongside strong, empowered women.

To be sure, the COVID pandemic continued to create significant challenges for our students. We continued to emphasize those four key words that had come to mean so much: patience, persistence, flexibility, and resilience. Thankfully, in spite of the challenges, this past academic year, we were able to facilitate ten monthly Leadership Development Workshops, along with all four of our quarterly Women's Empowerment Workshops and our four quarterly workshops for the men in our program. Most of these workshops we were able to offer in person, but some of them we had to facilitate via Zoom because of on-going or renewed COVID restrictions. One of the biggest challenges this past year has been COVID's impact on the academic year. At best, some universities are a semester behind, with the academic year beginning in March and ending in February. But for many of our students, their academic years have become even more fluid, beginning in perhaps April or May and ending perhaps in March or April. So graduation has shifted from the traditional June to sometime between February and May. But thankfully, all of the young women in our program who were supposed to graduate this year are indeed graduating. And all of the other women in our program have completed or are completing their final exams successfully. Some have started their new academic year. Others will have to wait a bit longer to start. But all are doing well! We are so proud of them. No matter what the challenges have been, they have found ways to overcome them and keep moving forward toward their dreams!

Ange was one of our new students in 2021. She is studying medicine and is scheduled to graduate in 2023. Ange said:

"'You must have a vision' is a statement left unsaid in every one of our monthly leadership training sessions. This message, constantly vibrating in my ears, has shaped me into a better servant leader. Right now it is my privilege to serve as the Director of the Standing Committee on Human Rights and Peace in MEDSAR (Medical Students' Association of Rwanda). It is my responsibility to communicate our vision well and to use that vision to create and implement meaningful projects that truly make a difference in our communities. This word -- "vision" -- not only helps me perform well as Director of this committee, but it has also impacted the decisions I make in my daily life. This past year, COVID-19 certainly blurred my sight to the future, but I learned from our These Numbers Have Faces monthly trainers that the path to success isn't always straight. So I decided to cling to my vision of becoming a medical doctor, despite all of the challenges. I am committed to making the best of every opportunity granted to me to reach my goal."

Ange is just one example of what's been happening in the lives of the young women in our Women's Empowerment Initiative. We are so thankful for their patience, flexibilty, resilience, and especially their passionate persistence! Thank you for helping all of these amazing young women make their dreams a reality!

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• We educate, equip, and empower bright young leaders in Africa