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Since 1992 ; Pro-Femmes/Twese Hamwe dedicated to women’s empowerment, gender equality, peacebuilding, and development in Rwanda. By today, the umbrella has grown to 52 member organizations from across the country. For the past over 30 years, PF/TH has served as a model for creating a peaceful and stable Rwandan society free of all types of gender discrimination and defined by gender equality and equity, as part of a larger process toward sustainable development.

Community mobilization, advocating for women’s participation in decision-making processes, economic development for women, and combating Gender Based Violence is among the notable accomplishments.

Pro-Femmes/Twese Hamwe believes that development cannot be achieved or sustained at the community, district, or national levels unless women are included and their rights are respected in all areas of development.

Women with vision can speak up and contribute to national development, with a special emphasis on vulnerable people having equal rights and opportunities for sustainable livelihoods and benefits from both household and national resources, which justifies the existence of Pro-Femmes/Twese Hamwe.

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Women’s Voice Matters in Mugombwa Refugee Camp.

In the context of linking humanitarian and development assistance, CARE International in Rwanda has signed an MoU with MINEMA and UNHCR to officially become an operational partner of the MINEMA-UNHCR joint Strategy for the Economic Inclusion of Refugees and Host Communities in Gisagara and Huye Districts. It is on that end, that PFTH in collaboration with MINEMA and Mugombwa refugee camp managers selected 29 women to be included in interventions aimed at supporting women and girls to raise their voices and participate in decision-making processes. The selected 29 women from the Mugombwa refugee camp received a Training of Trainers (ToT)) on Leadership, Public Speaking, Advocacy, Networking, and Collaboration (LAPS). Upon completion of the training, these 29 women committed to also train their peers from their respective committees in the camp, to exercise their voice, to address issues affecting women and girls in the camp, and furthermore to engage with the host community in socio-economic activities. This initiative has increased social cohesion between the host and refugee communities.

Emma Marie Murangasabwe is the Deputy Camp Manager ; she testifies on the impact of the LAPS training provided by PFTH while there was an election into families : “Usually refugee Camp is constituted by 12 families ; during the election ; 12 men were elected and no woman appeared on the list of heads of families ! Nothing infrequent had happened because that was the way it had always been ! The exception was that the network of women and girls’ champions working in the camp raised their voices to deny the election results and demanded that the elections be rerun so that women/girls be represented and ensure no one is left behind and ensure women also are taking part in decision making bodies ! Instantly 5 women were elected to support the committee. At that moment, I myself noticed that there was a big change being brought by these elected women champions through raising their voice to change prevailing negative cultural norms”.

As the Champion Jolie Uwamahoro, a refugee in charge of education in the camp said that they are continuing this journey and there is no turning back and they are engaged to cascade the knowledge given by PFTH in the dialogues sessions that take place in Quartiers and in the clubs, named Isuku n’ Isukura. The main topics covered include awareness raising on family law, promotion of Gender Equality, Women empowerment, GBV Prevention, etc.)

Jolie with her fellow champions is committed to combating the school dropouts. She highlighted that in few months 20 children who had dropped out of school were taken back to school and others are enrolled in TVET, thanks to champions’ support and advocacy.