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In Rwanda, a movement has emerged over the last few year that has seen girls creating their own platforms to tell their own stories. Ni Nyampinga is Rwanda’s first teen brand and it features both a magazine and radio show produced by girls for girls that centers on issues that directly affect them. In 2012, Girl Hub Rwanda decided to build on this movement by creating a team of girl researchers armed with the skills to gather and tell stories of Rwandan girls’ lives.

In partnership with Market Research Society (MRS) and UK-based organization 2CV, Rwanda’s Girl Research Unit (GRU) was established to provide training on research principles, recruitment in the field, facilitation of workshops and research, analysis and interpretation, and presentation of results from the research to clients. Five young women graduated in June 2014 with an international qualification from the Market Research Society in qualitative research skills and are now equipped with girl-centered research techniques.

Since June, the GRU has been conducting field research and analysis and giving presentations on their research methodology to audiences such as graduate students from the College of Education at the University of Rwanda. The girls usually work in pairs or small groups when conducting their research and then they analyze their findings as a whole group. Some of the issues the GRU has researched include:

• Ni Nyampinga radio and magazine: how girls respond to the different magazine issues. This research and analysis resulted in shortening the length of the magazine—as demonstrated in the latest issue (Issue 11). It also resulted in including boys in the upcoming Issue 12.
• How boys and men can contribute to ending violence against girls. This research fed directly into Issue 11 of Ni Nyampinga magazine.

We recently spent some time with two researchers, Frida and Aurore, who shared their experience so far.

How do you feel since your graduation in June?

Aurore:

Happy and proud: my skills and knowledge continue to improve and I’m proud that I’m learning so much. I hope to become a professional researcher in the future.

Frida:

We didn’t have a lot of independent research work before June because we were still in training. Since then, we have had the opportunity to work alone and to present our ideas to the team which has helped us develop independently. We have worked on several different projects that have improved our skills and that have brought us closer to being professional researchers.

What do you like most about being a researcher?

Aurore:

I enjoy being able to listen to, analyze, and understand different research findings and I love being able to communicate the thoughts and feelings of others in order to contribute to change. It’s exciting that our research findings can help develop NGO and Government programs and strategies.

Frida:

I like speaking on behalf of people who cannot speak for themselves. It is a rare opportunity for girls to be able to go into the field, speak to other girls, gather information, understand people’s perceptions about different issues and then present these views to those who can help empower the people.

Where do you see GRU in 2-3 years?

Aurore:

In three years, we will be more independent. We will not need as much feedback and supervision as we do now and we will be equipped with the skills and experience we need to be able to be hired as professional researchers. We also want to keep reaching out and sharing our experiences so that more girls are inspired to become researchers as well.

Frida:

I hope for the growth of the qualitative research industry in Rwanda. Qualitative research is being used in more government institutions and other organizations. It should not just be about the numbers but also the story behind the numbers. And these are the stories that the GRU can help tell.

Rwanda’s tourism industry has continued to be diversified with the latest being the introduction of a cultural festival this Boxing day.

The Nyanza District, home to some of the country’s most impressive historical cultural sites from the former kingdom, has partnered with the National Institute for Museums and others to launch a culture festival held for the first time this year on Boxing Day, December 26.

Information received from Kigali confirms that the Rwesero Art Museum has been selected as the venue for the inaugural event which according to the source will become part of Rwanda’s annual calendar of festivals.

Traditional song, poetry, arts, and crafts, alongside traditional food preparations, will form the core of the various activities for the day, aimed to bring closer the country’s rich history to the present day generation.

The festival targets not only Rwandans but also visitors from Eastern Africa and foreign tourists who are in the country and have the opportunity to stop by and enjoy some of the performances.

Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda have waived visa fees for foreign residents to allow easy access to the region’s diverse tourism experience.

According to Yamina Karitanyi, the Rwanda Development Board’s Head of Department for Tourism and Conservation, the waiver was agreed on under the Northern Corridor Integration projects initiative.

Known as the East Africa Tourist Visa (EATV), foreign residents no longer have to pay the $100 fee for the visa that is valid for 90 days effective December 15, 2014.

Karitanyi, said the waiver on the single East Africa Tourist Visa was the next step in consolidating and enriching the region’s tourism potential.

“We are approaching the rest of the world as a unified and rich tourist destination with varied experiences for travellers. We are also positioning East Africa’s tourism assets collectively as part of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects,” Karitanyi said at the weekend.

She added that joint marketing programmes will be carried out annually and will cover road shows such as the International Tourism Board (ITB) and World Travel Market (WTM) in 2015.

She pointed out that going forward, the partner states will lobby for a single stand during international tourism marketing events.

Outlining the modalities of implementation, Karitanyi said eligible foreign residents shall be issued with inter state pass on exiting the host state and visitor’s pass endorsed in their passports on arrival by presenting valid work/resident permits.

Other immigration procedures and regulations will, however, be maintained.
In preparing for the joint marketing programmes, she noted that the partner states were already gearing up the teams involved by conducting destination training workshops and disseminating information on the use of national identity cards, student/voters cards and the East Africa Tourist Visa.

“We encourage the private sector to take advantage of this opportunity to offer unbeatable packages while maximising win-win offers.”

The just concluded 8th Northern Corridor Integration Summit attended by Presidents; Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Paul Kagame, and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, held in Nairobi last week, also directed Rwanda’s Minister of Infrastructure to convene a meeting of Airline Industry stakeholders and finalise negotiations on the 5th Freedom Traffic Rights on Entebbe-Nairobi-Juba-Nairobi meant to address outstanding issues to reduce the cost of air travel in the region and report to the next Summit that will be held in Kigali.

In its commitment to promote East Africa as a single Tourism destination, Uganda has partnered with Rwanda to jointly promote two -way tourism traffic; between the two sister-countries.

Speaking during the a tourism training conference at Serena Hotel-Kigali, Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwandan Minister for Foreign Affairs said the move which was championed by the Uganda.

Tourism Board in partnership with the Rwandan Development Board is purposed to defend both the security and business developments of the two countries.

“People to people relations between Uganda and Rwanda is a very important step to strengthening the tourism sectors of the two economies-both of which come as their country’s biggest revenue earners, contributing over $1b to either country.”

Mushikiwabo said while addressing over 5,000 celebrants including Ugandan fraternity in Rwanda, High Commissioners and friends of Uganda in Rwanda.

According to Stephen Asiimwe, UTB Chief Executive Officer, under the merger, the two countries will have healthy tourism exchanges whenever marketing opportunities such as tourism marts and expos arise in the two countries and the Great Lakes Region in general.

As a result, social-economic problems such unemployment will be effectively addressed because Tourism is the world’s biggest employer, employing at least one of every ten people in its various sub-sectors such as Roads and Transport, Hotel and accommodation among others.

To aid in this realization, Uganda’s High Commissioner to Rwanda, Richard Kabonero said Rwanda will with immediate effect start by stamping out hindrances that have over the years suffocated a healthy business exchange between the two countries such as the border to border bureaucracies.

According to Edwin Muzahura, Head of Marketing UTB, the board’s choice for Rwanda was highly influenced by the fact that no other country in the region feeds Uganda with as much tourists as Rwanda.

Rwanda then becomes the 10th African country to benefit from investments in Protea Hotels services and infrastructure. The boom in Rwandan tourism is allowing Rwanda to become a tourist destination in the region and in Africa. Investors are scrambling in hospitality services and infrastructure. The South African Hospitality Giant “ProteaHotels” is following suit with the construction of a 5-star hotel in the District of Rusizi, in the west of the country, on the shores of Lake Kivu. This hotel of 15 billion Frws, or 22,058,823$, will have 76 rooms and will be completed in 2016 under the brand of “Protea Kivu Marina Resort Hotel.”.

Thus, “ProteaHotels Group”, part of “Marriott Hotels International”, one of the world’s leading hotels is also building another five-star hotel in the city of Kigali. Other internationally renowned hotels like Radisson Blu, Radisson by Park Inn, Kempinski, Sheraton and Golden Tulip are already in the market for Rwanda’s tourism and hospitality sector.

Yamina Karitanyi, Head of Tourism and Conservation at Rwanda Development Board (RDB) welcomes this new development. “We welcome investors like Protea because Rwandans will directly benefit from this partnership which will also contribute to Rwanda’s competitiveness, especially in tourism”. According to Karitanyi, “the Kuvu Belt (Kivu Bellt) is one of our priority places for the development of tourism and the diversification of the services we offer”.

ProteaHotels is a South African creation specializing in hospitality and leisure headquartered in Cape Town. It is the largest hotel company in Africa with over 126 three, four and five star hotels in 10 African countries. The majority of its hotels are in South Africa. Others are located in Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya and Ghana.

Rwanda and Kenya travel and tour operators have agreed to partner to strengthen tourism in their respective countries.

The agreement was reached following a meeting between the Rwanda Travel and Tour Association (RTTA) and their counterparts from Kenya.

Waturi Matu, the East Africa Tourism Platform coordinator, said it was important for tourism industry stakeholders in Rwanda and Kenya to work together, and also identify tourism products that could be jointly promoted.

“This will help us develop business-to-business deals that can help increase tourists numbers in both countries,” Matu pointed out.

“It’s a great honor to work with Kenyan tourism stakeholders. We are ready to share our experience and we hope we’ll learn a lot from them as we try to find ways to develop tourism in East Africa,” says Manzi Kayihura, the president of the Rwanda Tours and Travel Association.

Matu explained that Kenyan tour operators were in Rwanda to find ways on how to remove barriers that were hindering the tourism growth in East Africa. Matu added that the move was in line with the treaty that was signed by East African Community Heads of State to promote the region as a single tourism destination.

“We’ve been performing well as a region at international tourism fairs, but very little has been done to promote East Africa as a single tourism destination.”Matu said they would also start promoting tourism among East Africans to maximize benefits and revenue from the sector.

The Kenyan delegation included members of the Kenya Association of Travel Agents, the Kenya Association of Tour Agents. Also in attendance was the East African Tourism Platform.

The East Africa Tourism Platform was launched in Kigali in July 2012 to reduce obstacles to intra and inter-regional tourism, promote a regional tourism marketing approach and encourage continued human resource development and skills transfer.