Ten schoolgirls awarded by Imbuto Foundation for academic excellence at primary and secondary level earlier this week have received university scholarships from Mahatma Gandhi University-Rwanda campus.

The scholarships come at time when Imbuto Foundation is celebrating 10 years of promoting education of girls.

The girls received full scholarships for online bachelor degrees varying from IT and Computer application to Business.

The scholars expressed gratitude for the opportunity to complete their undergraduate studies, while Imbuto Foundation praised its partners in the quest to educate Rwandan girls.

"Although Imbuto Foundation does not currently support university students, we value partners such as Mahatma Gandhi University, who join us and build on our efforts to empower Rwanda’s youth, especially young girls,” the organisation, founded by the First Lady Jeannette Kagame, said in a statement.

Imbuto Foundation has since awarded more than 4,000 schoolgirls for their extraordinary achievements in education.

On July 5, more than 2,000 girls from various schools joined the First Lady and the Imbuto Foundation family to celebrate a decade of supporting schoolgirls.

In her speech, Mrs Kagame, the chairperson of Imbuto Foundation, said: "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”.

She said that most of the 4,000 girls awarded were still in school "and continue to excel”.

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

Inspiration

Emelyne Cishahayo, now a teaching assistant at the University of Rwanda’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, said she had always been hardworking, but even with that dedication to achieving top marks, she lacked school fees.

"When I went to secondary school, I could see how my parents struggled to provide school fees for my seven siblings and I. It became important to me to show my appreciation of their hard work, by performing well in school,” said Cishahayo.

"Educating girls is educating the nation. It’s important that girls have a vision, an objective and be determined in order to achieve great things. What I can tell girls is that they have the responsibility of educating the world.”

Meanwhile, Imbuto called on families and the community to do more to promote girls education.

"Efforts in promoting girls education require the support and encouragement of the families and communities that surround these young women. Parents play a big role in the development and success of a community,” Imbuto said in a statement.

Béatha Mukeshimana, whose child Aurore Umutesi was awarded a Presidential Scholarship to attend a university in the US, said: "I feel that society should take the first step in committing itself to promote equality, giving girls an equal chance at succeeding. Telling them that anybody can succeed regardless of whether they are female or male.”

"We need to move away from words and get into action. We need to say to ourselves as a society, over and over again, until it becomes the norm, that girls can achieve as much as the boys if not better,” she added.