PAULUS KAYIGGWA meets Joan Ingabire, recently crowned Miss SFB When I ask her how she came to be Miss School of Finance and Banking, Joan Ingabire smiles and replies, “my personality made me win the contest.” “I believe I deserved the crown because I am confident when talking to public and I always make sure I deliver what is exactly expected out of me,” she says, unsurprisingly, rather confidently. Ingabire has short hair and light skin and looks natural. She explains that becoming the ‘Miss’ of any institution doesn’t require much rehearsing, “it’s just a matter of presenting your self for people to choose you.” “I encourage women to participate in such activities; you know your self better as well as building your confidence,” she says. As a crowned Miss of SFB, Ingabire hopes to liaise with the Ministry of Gender in the struggle of promoting gender equality in the country. “Even in this new century, wives are still bullied by their husbands especially in the villages, we have to join hands and stop it at all social levels,” Ingabire says in an impressively tough tone. She admires Mary Baine, commissioner general of Rwanda Revenue Authority, and ORTPN head Chantal Rugamba, for their efforts in the development of the country. “When I look at these two people, heading such big institutions which handles lots of money for the country, its gives me confidence that women can even be heads of state,” she explains, adding that power does not lie in the muscles as men used to think, but in brains. Ingabire was born in a family of five children, two boys and three girls, in 1988, to father Francis Fundi and mother Mary Butabyo in Uganda. Her father works with Panache and mother with Concern World Wide both in Rwanda. When I ask her to describe her childhood, she smiles and looks aside as if trying to remember: “I used to be a stubborn girl but I don’t want to go into details.” Ingabire is a first year student at SFB studying business management on a day time programme. When asked about life at university she said that it’s very interesting though a little bit challenging with lots of reading and research to be done. “You know when you’re in secondary level, you do a lot of reading that you don’t expect to find at university,” Ingabire explains. Ingabire speaks Kinyarwanda, Kiganda, French and English fluently. She spends most of her free time at home but sometimes she hangs around town with friends. “At times I go to Rwanda for Jesus church for prayers; I need God’s grace in whatever I am doing,” she says. Ends
