Aloisea Benimana did not have a chance to get formal education, or any vocation training at an early age. A native of Masoro sector in the current Rulindo District in 1982, like many girls born in rural areas at the time, her education was not given priority.

Born in a family of 10 siblings in the Northern Province District, Benimana’s fate as the seventh child was sealed from the beginning.

Back in the day, when a family in the rural area bore many children, the priority for education was given to the male child, mainly due to limited resources or a wastage of resources to educate a girl child when it is known that at the end, she would be a housewife.

The female child would mostly stay at home to do chores and support her mother in other activities, like farming and cooking and as soon as they would become teenagers, they would be married off.

That is what happened to Benimana, now 43, and a mother of six herself. Today, she is mechanic, specialising in motorcycles – a job she has been doing since 2005. Being a mechanic is a preserve for men in most cases.

READ FULL STORY: Getting bolder: More Rwandan women are taking on male-dominated jobs but gaps remain