Map of Rwanda

Transforming Lives

Beatrice Mukayuhi

In Rwanda’s southern province, Beatrice Mukayuhi’s family was living in despair. Both Mukayuhi and her husband, Anicet Kamana, who have six children, were HIV-positive, and caught in a downward spiral of poverty, declining health, and self-loathing.

Odile Mugabekazi

But Mugabekazi’s life took a turn when she was identified by a USAID program that reached out to over 3,700 female sex workers in Rwanda. The program provided the training Mugabekazi needed to become a community health and financial leader. She learned how to teach her peers about family and financial planning, reproductive health, nutrition and more.

Pricille leading a lesson in her classroom.

I am interested in helping young children to become readers and writers,” says Pricille Uzanyinzoga, a first grade teacher at Remera Catholic, an elementary school in Rwanda’s capital of Kigali. Teaching children to read and write Kinyarwanda, Rwanda’s official language, is something Uzanyinzoga has been doing since 2003.

Ruth Dusabe tends to one of her cows.

The last 15 years have not been easy since Ruth Dusabe, who lives in Kicukiro on the outskirts of Rwanda's capital, lost her husband Gilbert to illness. Until his death, Gilbert had been the sole breadwinner for their family, which made his death not only emotionally heartbreaking, but a serious economic challenge for Dusabe and her four young children. At the time, she could not afford to rent a house, and even feeding the family was a daunting task without access to land.

Rwanda_Community Health Workers Fight GBV - Christine

Every year from Nov. 25 to Dec. 10, the world mobilizes through the 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence campaign to bring attention to countries like Rwanda, where nearly 56 percent of women report experiencing physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.

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