The American Embassy in Kigali has selected three Rwandan youth to attend a forum for the Young African Leaders which will take place in Washington DC, and will have a chance to meet US President Barrack Obama.

The trio is Dianah Mukundwa, a student at the School of Finance and Banking (SFB), Edwin Sebuhoro, Senior Economic Development and Tourism Advisor with SNV Rwanda and Ariane Inkesha, the Communication Officer at the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace.

According to the Embassy officials, the three-day forum to be hosted by President Obama will begin on August 3.
The forum is part of efforts to forge strong, forward-looking partnership in the years ahead among Young African Leaders, the officials said.

About 120 young African leaders from both the civil society and private sector are expected to attend, representing 40 countries from sub-Sahara African region.

Together with their American counterparts and US government officials, the participants will share insights on key themes of youth empowerment, good governance, and economic opportunity.

Obama is expected to host a town hall meeting at the White House with the participants to discuss their vision of transforming their societies over the next 50 years.

"This forum will help us as African leaders of tomorrow’s to have an opportunity to meet with grassroots service organizations to share experiences and strategies,” Sebuhoro said in an interview.

For Mukundwa, the forum will help them get new experiences and skills which they will bring and apply in the country in order to fight poverty in the region.

"This forum will enable us as young Africans to know how we can better manage to exploit the potentials within ourselves and getting exposure to developed countries across the globe, something that can benefit our nation in various aspects of life,” Mukundwa said. 

The trio was briefed about their trip and will fly out of the country on Sunday.

The forum is also in honour of 17 countries across sub-Sahara which celebrated fifty years of independence this year, according to the US embassy in Kigali.

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