#MEET Girls in ICT
This is a short interview we conducted with Innocent Mbanda, the creator of Girls in ICT. If you like this project and would like to vote for it, click here
1. Please, tell us a bit about yourself: where are you from and what is your background?
My name is Innocent Mbanda and I am from Kigali-Rwanda. I am the founder of Igire Rwanda Organization which works to empower youth to become more self-reliant. I hold a bachelor’s degree from National University of Rwanda, College of Education and am currently completing my second bachelor’s degree in Logistics and Operations from Southern New Hampshire University (USA). I am passionate about youth development because I believe that youth is the catalyst for social and economic development for posterity. I have been an inspiration and mentor for youth in Kigali and am looking forward to assisting youth in Youth Delegate Program to develop skills and experience to help them solve problems faced by their communities. I mobilize youth to assist their countries in SDG's implementations and believe that implementation of Quality Education will be fundamental for countries to achieve SDG's. I have a penchant for football games and love stand up comedy.
2. Can you describe your idea or project in two sentences?
Rwandan girls have limited access to different opportunities because they lack competency and have no required skills. Girls in ICT is a project designed to help them acquire those skills and competency that overcome their limitations to opportunities.
3. How did you get your idea or concept?
Rwanda in my country, I live in a community which has various challenges and most of them are affecting girls than boys. Some parents are not giving girls equal opportunity like boys to access education. Some girls stay at home and do not continue to the high institute of learning when they finish high school. In addition to that, it has been reported that they are getting married before the age of 21 (UNICEF report, 2016). I have also observed how they were prevented from attending schools which were a different treatment from that of boys. From that, I wondering what I can do to support girls’ learning and rights to access quality education. February 16-17, 2017, I was selected among other ESD youth leaders in Africa to attend two days training organized by UNESCO and WWF. From there, I have committed to bringing my few resources and my team to create a great impact in my community. We were a team of 5 change makers and we decided to start this project with our few resources, and have already started making an impact. Please allow me to share with you, our Facebook page and see the project is making an impact https://www.facebook.com/Igire-Rwanda-Organization-IRO-1247414055340682/
4. What is unique about your idea/project and how does it benefit mankind?
This project comes as a solution to a problem which girls in my community are facing; the lack of skills that make them eligible for different opportunities. The uniqueness of this project is that it is going to boost the political, economic and social empowerment of girls around the country. For many girls to access the ICT remains a big challenge and this proves gender discrimination and lack of confidence and low literacy on the side of females which affect the whole community and the country. This project will remove such challenges and empower girls with skills and opportunities which will help them to participate in the social and economic development of the society. The international community has identified women’s economic empowerment as an objective that is critical not only for achieving gender equality but also for overall development and poverty reduction. Improving the economic status of women can lead to better outcomes at the individual, family and community level, and has ripple effects across society. (UN Women, 2016)
5. Describe yourself as an entrepreneur in one sentence
I am young social entrepreneur who is passionate in a business that changes the life of mankind.
6. How do you deal with people that doubt your abilities/initiatives?
I am a person who likes to ask feedback and love challenges. This is because the challenges are there to guide us what to improve on what we are doing. I always welcome people who doubt my ability and observe what I have done and give a feedback what to improve.
7. Where does your passion lie?
Social Entrepreneurship and youth empowerment
8. What are you afraid of or what keeps you up at night?
Honestly speaking, this project keeps awake at night. We started this project with the end goal of helping our students (girls) to start their own business or being ready for work. Every day I visit my class to see how girls are growing and they are amazing. What wakes me up is to see how girls have amazing ideas and I am not sure if I will manage to find donors, investors to finance their ideas. I am working with small companies to find if they will give jobs/internships to the girls who graduated and their business is not yet funded or started. My goal is to see those girls changing their lives and this makes me awake the whole night.
9. According to you, money is a synonym for.....
Cash.
10. If you could rid the world of three things, what would they be?
Love, Happiness, and Health
11. What are the benefits you take from the Entrepreneurship Campus?
Through Entrepreneurship Campus, I have got feedback about my project and this has helped me to improve my project. Again, I have also met with other young leaders who are doing an amazing work in their community and we have been exchanging the ideas.
12. What do you like more about the Entrepreneurship Campus?
I liked how we have been giving feedback to each other on our project. It has really helped us to improve our projects.
13. Which idea/project do you like most?
Waste Business Hub
14. Please, include a link to a video if you have one
https://www.youtube.com/embed/4qSVN5f-Uhc&t=74s
NOTICE: If you want to see more submitted ideas and projects at the Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition, visit BEST IDEAS and BEST PROJECTS and VOTE for the ones you think deserve to WIN the Competition!
Photo via: pixabay.com
