Women From Rwanda

"I understand that there have been debates about my dress code at the closing concert and I appreciate the feedback and opinions from my fans and the general public. As an artist, I strive to express myself through various means, including my fashion choices ."

"I started playing basketball for fun at school, and a camp in Gisenyi became a turning point when Coach Jovithe Kabarere spotted me, igniting my passion for the game."

"This was a tough game but we tried to play hard and came back. They dominated us on the paint and on rebounding and it took teamwork to win this one. The first win is key as it gives us momentum going forward. We will make adjustments where necessary and come back stronger ."

"The women have been ostracized, dehumanized, stripped of their dignity, stripped of their land, and now, through music, they were able to convey all of those experiences."

"This program ensures that young players, especially girls, receive physical fitness training and the necessary support to overcome challenges faced in past competitions ."

"We had the chance to meet these incredible human beings who really, truly embody resilience and strength."

"I was overwhelmed and humbled by the reception I got when I returned from New-York with the prize. However, people are still asking me how I got into the competition and the kind of criteria followed"

"I’m honored to serve the country once again in the judicial sector. I’m looking forward to working in collaboration with the existing team to offer fair judgment to the population"

"I wanted to be a basketball player. Honestly, there is no specific reason to why I chose basketball, it just seemed like a really cool and clean game to me. I wouldn’t say it was always my dream because I barely knew it in my young age"

"Well, because we were poor, no one suspected that we could hide someone."

"People are going to talk regardless, but we just learn to block the haters. We just don’t let that energy affect us. And that’s what I said like nobody believed in this. They say, we qualified because we’re the host team and really we just know we’re the underdogs and we got to come out here and just prove people wrong."

"For the survivors who were in positions of responsibility, there were questions about the difficulty of being both in Ibuka and in the government: perhaps it was necessary to be on one side or on the other."

"We just came in ready. We lost to Angola and it’s not because they were better than us, but we made a lot of mistakes and that’s like, as Coach said, I just learned from my mistakes, and last game I had 8 turnovers, That’s a lot for a guard. I’m not supposed to have 8 turnovers. So, I learned from it and now I got to do the best for the team and just get a win one minute at a time."

"they will be looking to maintain their unbeaten run when the 2019/2020 BK Basketball National League resumes in September."

"“We came up with the name because the organisation is a way of funding our own solutions as Rwandans and Africans. Solid stands for the solidarity of Africans and a strong Africa."

"“I had always loved cooking and would sometimes cook for the whole neighbourhood. It saddened me that someone can go hungry when there is"

"I was ecstatic and humbled but it also shows that we are doing something right and creating a good impact. This gives us encouragement."

"food, and seeing these patients battling an illness on a hungry stomach made it worse. I spent a year with the patients, identifying their needs and eventually realised that patients had food insecurity."

"We want to build these opportunities here. We want people to come and live with us here, to build these opportunities and to benefit from the opportunities and make this a place of opportunity, a continent of opportunities"

"The UK-Rwanda partnership is seen as a model that can salvage thousands of young people, men, women and children from making desperate journeys across seas looking for safety as asylum seekers or economic opportunities."

"Rwanda has successfully that it is one of the safest countries for refugees as it has been attested by those who were evacuated from Libya, some of whom viewed being relocated to Rwanda as a dream come true, compared to the situation they were in before."

"Asylum seekers relocated from the UK will not have a choice, pointing out that among other choices, Rwanda and the UK have been working together to ensure that they are integrated in the Rwandan society. “They will have a choice to live here with us and work. They will be facilitated to do that. With the partnership that we’re working on with the UK, we will ensure that they get these opportunities there, they will receive the safety that they need and they will get training in language and other skills,” “They will be able to go to school and they will live amongst us in Rwanda if they do want to go back home. We will not be deporting anyone or sending people back to dangerous situations, but they will have a choice to go back home if they want to,”"

"In the last almost 30 years, we’ve welcomed a lot of refugees to Rwanda. We have over 130,000 refugees who live here, mostly Congolese and Burundians, and in smaller numbers people from elsewhere on the continent and beyond, “We are not new to this kind of situation where people are coming in seeking safety and opportunity. We have we partnered with the UNHCR and the African Union to evacuate migrants, mostly Africans, who were stuck in Libya when the war started,”"

"Rwandans have been refugees for 30 years from 1959 and the post-1994 Genocide against the Tutsi which saw millions more displaced to different neighbouring countries and beyond but later came back."

"“Rwanda is a welcoming country; we have been for decades now. We also have people come here to go to school or to start businesses. And we are open to that. Our migration policy is quite open,"

"Rwanda as a country believes in free movement of people, hence the open visa and visa on arrival policy for Africans, members of the Commonwealth and others looking to come into the country. This is a vision Rwanda shares with other countries under the African Union -to make the continent accessible for those wishing to come to compete for the opportunities Africa has to offer and develop along with others."

"We’re not the only country facing these challenges,” she said, adding that the government is working with partners, including the UK, to address these issues and with the right investments in the program, the challenges will be addressed over the next five years."

"We are happy with the progress that we have made but we’re not there yet. We will continue to work even as the debate on migration reaches around the world. We’re busy doing the work that we’ve all done,” she said, adding that both Rwanda and the UK are determined to make the arrangement work."

"We want to offer both [safety and economic opportunities] here and we want to do it in a way that makes sense and corrects the imbalance in opportunities between the global south and the north,” she said, adding that it would also remove the perception that opportunities are in the north."

"“We don’t want to lose people to these desperate journeys across the Sahara and across the Mediterranean Sea. We’re losing brain power in Africa. We want young Africans to remain here and to build the continent,”"

"Rwanda has received members of the School of Leadership of Afghanistan (SOLA), that first Afghan girls boarding school, who moved from Kabul to Rwanda for their own safety after the Taliban swept to power in 2021, all of which goes to show that Rwanda is safe. They’ve been here, close to two years and they live amongst us and the school started running immediately when they got here, and they’re bringing in new Afghani girls from refugee camps all over the world to join the school,”"

"Rwanda is still dealing with challenges including inflation, increased cost of living but the government is working around the clock to cushion citizens and anyone else living in Rwanda from these shocks."

"If the partnership with the UK works out as expected, it will be a solution to the global migration challenges, resulting from recent upheavals across the world which have led to many people fleeing their countries, posing a challenge for others, with no immediate solution in place"

"We don’t think it’s immoral to offer a home to people, something that we have done here for more than 30 years and we’re doing this for the right reasons. So, people may have their own opinions about what this program is like, depending on where they come from, “But from where are we coming from, we’re doing this for the right reasons. We want Rwanda to be a welcoming place and we’ll do our best, to make sure that the migrants are taken care of, and that they’re able to build a life here,"

"“Something has to give and we are happy to be working on this solution with our UK partners,”"

"The report authored by ‘independent experts’ reveals nothing new and falls short of addressing the root cause of the conflict in Eastern DRC, which is the existence of armed groups, including the FDLR which has operated there since 1994, despite the existence of the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO)."

"We will be able to provide not just a safe haven these people are looking for but the opportunity to build new lives here and develop alongside Rwandans,"

"We’re partnering with the UNHCR and the African Union to bring migrants who were stranded in Libya to safety in Kigali. Over 1,000 migrants have passed through this centre, many have been relocated to other countries.”This is just an illustration of Rwanda’s commitment to protecting refugees & vulnerable people around the world -a principle which always governs our international policy,"

"Rwanda continues to ensure that its borders are protected, “This is why our armed forces are at the border. We've said this very openly and we will not hesitate to protect and to defend our borders and also protect our people. We have said this very clearly. What we will not allow is, for any kind of conflict to come across the border and we are prepared for that.”"

"When the first flight lands here in Kigali, the new arrivals will be welcomed and will be looked after and supported to make new lives here. We will provide support with their asylum applications, including legal support and translation services,”"

"“We will provide decent accommodation and look after all their essential needs. We also want to make it clear that if people apply for asylum in Rwanda and their claim is rejected, through the process that we will have here, they will still have a pathway to legal residency in Rwanda and we welcome people from everywhere,"

"We do hope they chose to stay with and following the footsteps of so many who have made Rwanda their home and have flourished here,"

"We are determined to make this work. We understand that there might be opposition to this but we are asking that this programme be a given a chance because it’s a solution,”"

"“There are not many solutions. People are suffering, the asylum system is broken. It’s being taken advantage of by criminal gangs that are exploiting people, making false promises. People are risking their lives in these dangerous crossings,”"

"We were expecting migrants from all over the world, people coming from countries with conflict, some may have been persecuted from where they are coming from, or maybe they are coming from countries that don’t have opportunities and we think that a lot of them have a misconception about what Rwanda is like and what Africa is like and to be quite honest some of these are perpetuated by media that does not reflect the reality of our countries,”"

"We will give them an opportunity to see what it’s like to live in this country. We do not consider living in Rwanda as a punishment. We don’t think anyone should,"

"Rwanda will continue to play its role as a safe place for people, especially refugees and asylum seekers from across the globe looking for a place to call home. That is regardless of a recent court decision in the UK that purportedly deemed the country ‘unsafe’ for refugees."

"The country cannot be deterred by different opinions from elsewhere because Rwanda and Rwandans know what it means to be a refugee or asylum seeker, and cannot abandon those in dire need for safety."

"Rwandans know what it is to be on the move, or to be displaced, just because of the history of our country,” Makolo said, reiterating why the country maintains an open policy for refugees, asylum seekers and other categories of people in need of safety,"

"Rwanda is doing it for the right reasons and that the country has the experience of being a welcoming place for people living in precarious conditions."