Rwanda’s Young African Fellows head to US Friday

US ambassador to Rwanda Donald Koran on Monday evening hosted six inaugural Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Washington Fellows, ahead of their departure for a six-week exchange, training and networking programme in the US on Friday. The YALI Washington fellowship is a US President Barrack Obama’s flagship exchange programme whose core goal is to encourage investment in the next generation of Africa’s leaders who are believed to be already transforming the continent. “They are an impressive group of dynamic young people who are expected to play pivotal roles in the future of Rwanda and in its relationship with the US,” Ambassador Koran explains. The six-week fellowship includes leadership training and academic coursework at some of the top universities in the US. “When these young leaders return to Rwanda, they will partner with the US embassy, their fellow YALI applicants and others to set motion for their ideas for Rwanda’s future. They will also have access to funding for their projects,” Koran said. More than 1000 Rwandans applied for the Washington Fellowship where only six qualified for the training. These include, Colombe Ituze a fashion designer at INCO Icyusa who will get training in business and entrepreneurship from the Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and Doreen Karake a legal analyst at the Rwanda Development Board who will train in public management at Florida International University in Miami. Others to receive the training include Gilbert Mucyo, a communications researcher in the office of the Government spokesperson who will be trained in public management at Howard University in Washington DC, and Marcel Mutsindashyaka, the founder and CEO of Umuseke IT LTD whose focus will be business and entrepreneurship at the Yale University in Connecticuticut. Nadia Hitimana is a health and hygiene officer with Sustainable Health Enterprise who will be trained in civic leadership track at the university of Delaware and Vincent Kalimba a senior business advisor with Technoserve; he will focus on civic leadership track at Wagner College in New York City. The six will leave Rwanda for the US on Friday where they will undergo training in their respective universities. Colombe Ituze, a fashion designer and one of the beneficiaries said she will use the knowledge acquired from the training to help empower teenage girls through the Adolescent Girls Initiative as well as grow her business. To qualify for the YALI fellowship, one had to clearly state their contribution to the learning of others, what they thought was a pressing problem in their society and the barriers to addressing the problem at hand among others. Emery Gatsinzi better known as Riderman is one of the few Rwandans that has benefited from such a programme under the Hip hop and civic engagement where he received training for three weeks. Gatsinzi said the training has helped him better his music career and also expand his Ibisumuzi music label as well as work with government to send out a message of peace and promote government programmes through his music.

National

Rwanda’s Young African Fellows head to US Friday