Dr Jendayi Frazer, the former U.S Assistant Secretary of State of African Affairs, is in Rwanda, where she will today join Education stalwarts in the country to launch a major girls education scholarship programme.

Amb. Frazer is a Board member of The MasterCard Foundation, a Canada-based international charity, which is behind the scholarship initiative, dubbed the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program in Rwanda.

The programme, to be implemented by Fawe Rwanda chapter, seeks to provide comprehensive upper secondary school and university scholarship packages to 1,200 Rwandan schoolgirls for a period spanning 10 years.

Also in the country for the launch are the President and CEO of The MasterCard Foundation, Reeta Roy; Fawe Africa Chairperson and former Guinean Education minister Aicha Bah Diallo; Fawe Regional Secretariat executive director Hendrina Doroba; Fawe Ethiopia chapter coordinator Roman Degefa, among others.

Some 200 Rwandan schoolgirls are already benefiting from the project. The project targets academically bright schoolgirls from economically disadvantaged families.

Yesterday, Roy, Doroba and Degefa and other officials visited a secondary school that hosts some of the students in Byumba, Gicumbi, the home of one of the scholars in the area; and Gikomero, Gasabo where they also visited another scholar’s home.

The families of the beneficiary students expressed gratitude towards The MasterCard Foundation Scholarship Program.

Today’s launch event will be presided over by the Education minister Dr Vincent Biruta. A similar programme is being implemented in Ethiopia.