About Us
Our
Story
Formed by a group of young Rwandan women who came together during the pandemic while students at Akilan Institute participated in weekly training programs for over a year. They did work as apprentices for Global GAIN, a US nonprofit organization dedicated to linking women leaders interested in public service and democracy while building their unique program self named Intwari Women. This cohort of women were inspired by the program to make it sustainable and available for more young Rwandan women. Over the past year, they have organized and worked to establish it as a local Rwandan NGO dedicated to inspiring young women to be community leaders, public servants, and global citizens.
This is now named Women GAIN Rwanda. Our new organization is dedicated to Gender Advocacy, Initiatives, and Networking - which is what GAIN stands for and works to do. Our programs focus on inspiring young women to be public leaders. Our home, at Kiyovu Compound, is a special space for our events and to host others who want to support women, local culture, and community, work and perform yoga and wellness, and appreciate the beauty of our environment and wellness.
Women GAIN Rwanda received its operational certificate in April 2023. We are proceeding with our programs, creating space for learning, networking, and inspiring women to be gender advocates, community activists, public leaders, and global citizens. Our space is also available for other women-led initiatives.
Our unique programs focus on confidence, communication, digital content creation, creative thought leadership, and professional development. We want to teach women to become feminists, policy activists, and socially impactful community business leaders. We work to help them identify their passions and dreams - and how to turn them into reality. We're establishing an online and in-person community space based in Kigali for young women dedicated to gender equality, political and civic engagement, feminist activism, intersectional organizing, and a commitment to public service leaders committed to building community space and programs to teach and learn from one another.
We encourage young women to enter public service but connecting with elected women, feminist champions, and gender and progressive policy change makers. We teach women digital skills, event organizing, program management, training, and storytelling about other inspiring women leaders.
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Women GAIN leaders created this website - and run Intwari Women Social Media on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. They also manage the Global GAIN website, fundraising, emails, grant writing, and social media channels on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook - and much more. They are an impressive group of young women - all of whom graduated from the Akilah Institute.
We’re also working on plans to develop our space at the Kiyovu Compound to be more of a Co-Living and Co-Working Space for Women Social Impact Entrepreneurs and Initiatives. Currently, we have three houses and an event building that we Airbnb, host events, and work at called Kiyovu Compound. The women manage this property and space as well - well as our website and social media - on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Networking, partnerships, and collaboration are cornerstones of our vision and model. We are eager to facilitate collaboration with other women lead initiatives. We want to offer space and community for women entrepreneurs, other female-focused NGOs, artists, and performers, and a place that offers natural beauty, community, and beautiful events. As part of our model for success, sustainability, and growth, we’re working on plans for a social impact business to create a unique women-centric co-working and co-living community center at the Kiyovu Compound, where we currently work. For more information about our leadership, programs, and physical space, please visit our online sites or email us at team@womengain.org