Ni Nyampinga: The voice of Rwandan girls

TWENTY-YEAR-OLD Diane Uwamahoro is a dentist at Remera Rukoma Hospital in Kamonyi district. She attributes her passion for sciences to Ni Nyampinga, a magazine dedicated to empowering girls. Launched in 2011 by Girl Hub Rwanda, Ni Nyampinga is a platform for girls to learn, connect, and explore the opportunities around them. “I read stories in the magazine in 2011 about how science is a field that girls should not shy away from and this gave me the confidence to take on such a challenge. It inspired me to study sciences and I’m now a dentist. The real life experiences portrayed in the magazine are inspiring,” Uwamahoro narrates. Uwamahoro, a graduate from Kigali Health Institute, says that there is need to build capacity for girls especially in nurturing self confidence. “As a result of various cultural barriers, girls grow up scared of achieving certain dreams or goals because they are brought up thinking that some fields are a man’s domain thus limiting themselves and crushing the aspirations they had. Ni Nyampinga is trying to help break such barriers,” Uwamahoro explains. Ni Nyampinga shows that investing in girls by empowering them through education limits early marriages and teenage pregnancies and also breaks the poverty cycle. It is a media platform that has greatly focused on adolescent girls and in doing so, has changed some Rwandan communities for the better. Uwamahoro adds: “When you interact with most teenage girls, they will tell you how they want to be like Esther Mbabazi, Rwanda’s first female pilot, because of the story they read in the magazine about her journey to such a great achievement.” Ni Nyampinga, which can be loosely translated as the ‘beautiful girl inside out’, also has a weekly radio show produced for girls, by girls. Ni Nyampinga young female journalists are between the ages of 15-24, mostly students. They are redefining the girl’s role in Rwandan communities based on the articles they write as well as the inspiring stories they broadcast on radio. The girls of Ni Nyampinga The magazine is distributed to girls every quarter through a national network of Ni Nyampinga ambassadors in each district. Thirty Ni Nyampinga ambassadors, each representing one district in the country, graduated on May 29 at the Girl Hub Rwanda offices in Remera. The ambassadors were selected two years ago from each district to advocate for the magazine and weekly radio show in their communities. The aim is to provide knowledge to adolescent girls and empower them to become strong decision makers and leaders in their communities. Speaking after the graduation ceremony, Claudine Uwamahoro, the Ni Nyampinga ambassador from Muhanga district said that besides inspiring other girls, being an ambassador is a role that had an impact on her life. “I’m happy that I was given the chance to express myself fully without fear. I was involved in public discussions with our district leaders and it’s wonderful that Rwandan girls are being recognised, our future is bright,” says Uwamahoro. She adds that being an ambassador boosted her self confidence. “Ni Nyampinga magazine and the radio shows opened our minds to achieve our dreams and goals. Inspiring stories published in the magazine about other girls and young women who have made it in life have been of help not to only me as an ambassador but to the girls in my district that I have been interacting with for the last two years,” Uwamahoro says. The 30 graduates have distributed over 810,000 copies of Ni Nyampinga and built a network of community leaders and partners to distribute the magazine in over 800 locations. Before graduating, Girl Hub Rwanda organised a workshop for the 30 ambassadors to focus on building the skills and confidence of Ni Nyampinga ambassadors. Chance Mukamusoni, the ambassador of Nyagatare district is currently a researcher for Ni Nyampinga products thanks to the skills she attained from the vast trainings provided to the ambassadors. The 24-year-old says: “Besides being economically empowered as a researcher, I’m respected in my community because of the different roles I played in influencing other girls in my community as a Ni Nyampinga ambassador. I also attained several connections and networks that are beneficial in the professional world.” Just like any other project, Ni Nyampinga is faced with challenges and its biggest challenge is the fact that some girls and young women cannot read the magazine because they did not go to school. “In distributing the magazine, we discovered that there were some girls and young women in the villages who could not read but we made it our initiative to mentor and help them read and I can say that it has been a successful journey,” Mukamusoni says. Beatrice Niyigwiza is one of the pioneer presenters of Ni Nyampinga radio show that started airing in November 2011. “On the show, we provide teenage girls with information about issues that affect them and we provide possible solutions based on testimonies of experienced people. We hold talk shows with teenage girls around the country so that they can share their experiences and learn from them,” Niyigwiza explains. Although Niyigwiza is a fourth year student at Kigali Independent University pursuing a Bachelors in Economics, she is also into business, a trait she says she picked after interacting with other teenagers and young women who started small businesses and are now economically empowered. “We have interviewed young women who have ventured into business and are doing well yet they started with insufficient capital. I also opened a small shop that deals in bags and ladies accessories and I’m able to earn a living even before I graduate,” Niyigwiza reveals. The Ni Nyampinga radio show airs every Tuesday and Thursday on Radio 10 and Radio Rwanda at 2:00pm as well as on Isango Star Radio every Sunday at 1:00pm. “The Ni Nyampinga radio show has helped in promoting dialogue amongst teenage girls and their parents. There are issues that parents and teenage girls are scared of discussing but when we talk about them on the show, a platform through which the teenagers can ask questions and attribute the source of information is created and this is helpful especially with issues of behavioural change,” Niyigwiza says. What society thinks about Ni Nyampinga Francis Rutabingwa, the head of Nyagatare Youth Centre, says that positive change amongst the girls in Nyagatare can be attributed to Ni Nyampinga magazine and radio show. “The youth centre deals with behavioural change and youth reproductive health issues. Ni Nyampinga magazine and radio show has helped girls, and even the boys, learn how to respect their bodies and become responsible for their health. Today, it’s so hard for a teenage girl to be deceived, for instance that if they have sex for the first time they will not get pregnant,” Rutabingwa reveals. He explains that with the distribution of the magazine in Nyagatare by Chance Mukamusoni, a Ni Nyampinga ambassador, the girls have formed clubs in schools to provide a platform to voice their issues. “We can see that most teenage girls in Nyagatare have gained confidence and have big dreams and plans for their future, thanks to the motivational and inspiring stories that are published in Ni Nyampinga,” Rutabingwa says.

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Ni Nyampinga: The voice of Rwandan girls