A youth activist is taking the battle for gender equality in Rwanda head-on.
Irene Irere, is a youth activist living in Musanze City in northern Rwanda. Irere is committed to ending gender-based discrimination and violence in her country. She also strives to help decrease the amount of pregnancies in young girls in Rwanda.
Irere is a part of her local youth club, affiliated with Huguka Dutore, a youth initiative in Rwanda. On June 13th USAID (The U.S. Agency for International Development) dedicated 17.2 billion Rwandan Francs to Huguka Dutore. The organization plans to train 40,000 Rwandan youth in workforce readiness skills by 2021.
Through her work, she works to be able to provide others with links to jobs and self-employment, entrepreneurship training and coaching. She says that she understands the importance of having access to financing, family planning, and reproductive health services, and is striving to provide them to others in her community.
#EqualEverywhere is a United Nations initiative that focus’ on working towards gender equality around the world. Irere told #EqualEverywhere that to her, gender-equality means “For me, #EqualEverywhere means women and men can be treated equally at home, in their communities, in schools, and at work. Many people perceive this statement differently based on their culture, interests, and faith. To me, #EqualEverywhere means to treat women and men equally and respect their natural differences.”
When asked why fighting for gender-equality is important to her, Irene said “ As an African living in Rwanda, it is common to say that men are more powerful than, or superior to women. Certain people assume women cannot contribute to community development. Because of this, women continue to face different forms of violence, including marital abuse. The main issue is young girls below 18 years impregnated by older men, something I strongly advocate against. Awareness of this touched me deeply and led me to push for policies to ensure such men are seriously punished.”
Irere has already seen major progress in the few years that she has been an activist and advocate. “In fact, before I started, the pregnancy rate among young girls was high.” she says “Then, over the past year, 200 fewer were reported. This progress motivates me to continue my work.”
As a country, Rwanda is working towards a more gender-equal society. In 2017, Rwanda ranked in the top five best countries for gender equality in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender-Gap Report. For instance, women in Rwanda make an average of 88 cents for every dollar that a man makes, while in the United States it’s closer to 77 cents. When it comes to Rwandan politics, women are in the lead. Women hold 64% of the seats in Rwanda’s national legislature. This is higher than any other country in the word. For example, Sweden is number five, with 44% of their seats taken by female politicians.
The study ranks countries based on the degree of women's participation in the economy, their educational achievements, their health and healthcare, and their political involvement.
Written By: Devon-Clare Banfield
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