In 2013, Grace Rwanda/Ineza Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Youth and ICT (MYICT) to open 21 Youth Center Community Libraries across the country.

That same year, the foundation opened the first community library in Muhanga district, Southern Province. The following year, another library project was launched in Kayonza district.

On Saturday June 11, the third library was opened at the Bugesera Youth Center in Bugesera district.

"The main purpose of this activity was to open the first library in this community that is going to be used by the Youth Center but also the community can benefit from it, including schools and other people around it,” explained Elizabeth Johnson Mujawamaliya, the co-founder of the Ineza Foundation.

She describes Ineza Foundation as "a community- driven, philanthropic and social enterprise that provides educational support for the children and youth of Rwanda by building collaborative partnerships, sharing resources and  skills, and promoting social development through community capacity building.”

Mujawamaliya and her team of Rotarians, donors and volunteers brought to the Bugesera and Rwamagana Youth Center library over 2,500 books each for the start, including e-readers each containing over 400 e-books.

She revealed that stocking and equipping of the libraries would be an on-going process.

"The idea was to open these libraries as the beginning, and then we can add more titles in Kinyarwanda, English and French. Most of the books we brought this time are in English.”

After Bugesera, the foundation moved to open another library at the Rwamagana Youth Center, followed by Kimisagara Youth Center, from where they will move to Iwawa Rehabilitation Center to equip it with its own reading materials.

"We are opening four libraries within these few months we’re here so that makes it seven, meaning we have fourteen to go.”  

But it was not all books and reading in Bugesera. Actually, the opening of the library came only as the crowning moment to a day of various activities.

It kicked off with a friendly football match between Bugesera YEGO Center and the youth cooperative –Tuzamurane, whose members are graduates from Iwawa Rehabilitation Center. Bugesera Youth Center won 2-1 over Tuzamurane in the match that was played at the Bugesera Catholic School play ground.

Grace Rwanda and Ineza Foundation contracted the youth cooperative Tuzamurane to construct the tables, chairs and book shelves for each of the 21 Yego Youth Center libraries.

The teams also received full sets of soccer jerseys and other player kits, courtesy of Grace Rwanda and Ineza Foundation.

The entire event attracted school children from nearby schools, local leaders and members of the community.

After the football match, they all returned to the Bugesera Youth Center, where students danced to some Rwandan music before successively taking their turns to present their poems on stage.

All the poems addressed the theme of literacy and its importance in youth development:

"We made a poem about writing and reading as the source of development and we called it ‘Reading is not filling a pale but lighting of a fire’. When you fill something with anything you don’t feel the result, when you fill a hole that doesn’t react but when you light a fire you get to use that light and maybe use it to see,” explained Amahoro Sandrine Rutayisire, a student at Maranyundo Girls Secondary School in Bugesera district. 

She co-presented the poem with her schoolmate, Tuyishime Nadine.

"Those children who can read and write can shine just like a fire. We co-wrote the poem by combining ideas. First of all we like making poems because it’s our hobby. We normally write to enter into competitions just like this. When we heard that there was going to be a competition about something we love to do we decided to participate because we want everybody to know what we’re doing, we also want to sensitize other students to join us. That’s why we made that poem,” Rutayisire added. 

"I started making poems last year and I was able to make a poem about remembering the Tutsi who died in the 1994 genocide and I performed it at school and they liked it very much. I like going into such competitions because they also help me to get experience in my way of doing poems.

I get many ideas from different people. I do it because I like to help people because there is a quote I wrote that you may do something to some people and they don’t remember it, but the thing that counts is how you made him or her feel. 

So these poems when we present them to many people it helps them in their hearts and they will remember that this child told me something and I should use it in my life,” explained Nadine.

"I’m in S2 but I started writing poems in primary six and I got to know that it’s not just about studying to pass examinations, you have to have a hobby –something that you just love to do. When I finished my examinations I figured I was studying just for exams not for my general knowledge. When I started poetry that’s when I realized that I can use my time and energy for something else,” concluded Rutayisire.

Started in Canada:

Rwanda Ineza started as an off-shoot of Grace Rwanda, a Canadian-registered charity organization.

"We started this with another lady called Marie-Louise Kaligirwa who is from Bugesera but lives in Canada as a diaspora like me. We went to Canada several years ago and met there and we thought that together we need to do something for our own country, and we got other friends from Canada who pledged to be behind us and we started from zero, connecting with Rotary clubs in Canada because we’re both Rotarians. 

We are actually equipping this library because we received a donation from the Rotary Club of Langley Sunrise, which is our Rotary club in connection with the Rotary District 5050 in British Columbia, Canada,” Mujawamaliya explained.

In 2014 they decided to create a sister organization that would act as a local NGO, hence the birth of the Ineza Foundation in Rwanda. 

"In January I moved to Rwanda full-time with my husband to kind of increase our capacity so we can open the office and be able to assemble an operational team here for Ineza Foundation so they can be the ones to implement all the projects for Grace Rwanda Society,” Mujawamaliya explained. 

"I was born and raised in Rwanda but even though I was lucky to study and got an M.A, I haven’t been one to really hold a book and read, and this is mainly because I was not engrained with that culture from a young age, that’s why today I know exactly how bad it is to not be a reader. As a young girl I got education but reading was a challenge. 

I didn’t hold my own book in my hands until when I was finishing high school, which means that if we provide reading materials at an early age like kindergarten and primary then these will be the example for others to follow. For a Rwandan raised in Rwanda and then went abroad, I found that education without a reading culture is very, very challenging. So for that reason we are trying to groom the young generation so that they can become readers, and then ultimately the leaders of tomorrow.

Reading is part of knowledge acquisition and if you don’t read you are cut off from this pool of knowledge.”

editorial@newtimes.co.rw