First Lady Jeannette Kagame has urged more support for girls’ education, saying, as a result of such support, girls have excelled in school and become role models for their community.

The First Lady said this while addressing over 2,000 girls who had been previously awarded for their top academic performance by the Imbuto Foundation.

Imbuto Foundation was yesterday hosting a special event to celebrate 10 years of inspiring Rwandan girls to excel in school at Petit Stade in Remera, in Kigali.

The event was graced by top government officials, including Speaker Donatille Mukabalisa, Prime Minister Anastase Murekezi, as well as foreign guests, among them Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Mrs. Kagame noted that "today we look back on the seeds we planted 10 years ago with pride.”

"We marvel at how the young girls we nurtured and supported have grown and become inspiring role models in their own right. Among the 4,000 girls we awarded, most are still in school and continue to excel,” she said.

"The girls who have completed school have chosen impressive careers – some are university professors, engineers, medical doctors, media professionals, agronomists and civil servants, to mention but a few. Some have started their own families and are now responsible for nurturing future generations.”

As of 2014, she said, 54% of girls were passing primary school exams; a positive trend showing that "together with other partners we have made a difference.”

At this milestone, Mrs. Kagame, the founder and President of Imbuto Foundation, said there was reflection on key lessons learned from the campaign. The lessons learned, she pointed out, are that a little encouragement goes a long way in positively shaping a girl’s life, and that there is power in networking.

"If a girl knows there is someone who believes in her and her abilities, this goes a long way in preparing her to be a leader or role model. The idea of holding award ceremonies in a community setting creates a sense of pride for the girls and even the communities they come from. Girls are motivated to compete, work harder and are more confident. Given the right environment and encouragement, girls continue to succeed all through their lives, making excellence a habit.”

Mrs. Kagame also took time to recognise partners who have helped make Imbuto Foundation’s dream a success.

All the country’s best performing girls, she noted, are a testament to the synergy between many partners she called "Champions for Girls Education”. These include the Ministry of Education, local authorities, the One UN family particularly UNICEF, Tumba College of Technology, Cisco, Rwanda Development Bank, teachers and parents.

"This is as much of an achievement for you as it is for Imbuto Foundation,” she said.

The awarded girls are not only grateful to the First Lady, but are also motivated to aspire for bigger things.

Lea Bagenzi, 19, now a first-year university student of surveying and geomatic engineering, a rapidly developing engineering discipline that focuses on spatial information at University of Rwanda’s College of Science and Technology (CST) in Kigali, is confident and aspires to achieve more.

Back in 2008, while in Kayanza Primary School in Rubavu District, Bagenzi won an award as best performing girl.

She told The New Times that on being awarded, she did not only feel very happy and proud to be a girl achiever, but was also inspired to continue her studies.

"Now, I am studying in the faculty of surveying and geomatic engineering, a domain that girls never engaged in before. I thank our First Lady for promoting girls’ education and I want to tell fellow girls to use this great opportunity to achieve their goals,” she said.

Angelique Uwamahoro, 20, a two-time winner of the prestigious award, first in 2008 and then in 2014, beamed when asked to share her story. She is now studying medicine at the University of Rwanda’s College of Arts and Social Sciences in Huye.

She told The New Times that the first award after primary school "was encouraging and I then worked harder by using many books and the dictionary I was given by Imbuto Foundation.”

"The first award really helped me much and it made me the best performer again in 2014 when I was this time given a laptop after completing secondary school. The laptop, my first-ever, will help me study well to become a good doctor, which is my dream. And, I just want to thank the First Lady for thinking about us every day,” said Uwamahoro.

During a panel discussion, Mrs. Blair, a special guest, shared an inspiring experience.

The former First Lady of the UK told the big gathering how she did not start out living a privileged life, but rather worked hard to succeed.

She said at the tender age of eight, her father "abandoned” her mother, leaving her "to struggle to bring up the two daughters” on her own.

Mrs. Blair said: "I won my first prize when I was eight for being the best in class. When I was 10, I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to a girls’ convent grammar school. And when I got there, the nuns told me that there was nothing that I could not do and I was prepared to work hard.”

At 14, Mrs. Blair added, she was a confident girl who told girls in her class that she was going to be the first woman Prime Minister of the UK.

She later became a top student in her class and earned a government scholarship to study law at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), one of the world’s leading public universities.

With hard work and the right government support, she said, there is actually no reason why girls cannot achieve and, indeed, do better.

Mrs. Blair was quick to underline that it is not just a competition between girls and boys.

"It is not a question of girls doing better than boys or boys doing better than girls; it is actually a question of all of us realising that by each of us working together, and respecting each other’s talents, because we are all different and all have different talents, it is the only way that a person can achieve, a family can achieve and a country can achieve,” Mrs. Blair said.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw