In all situations, under all circumstances and with all spirit one would have for humanity, especially for the value anyone would have for young women as future mothers, leaders, teachers, educators, engineers, pilots, politicians, presidents, first ladies, entrepreneurs, and so on, Purpose Rwanda’s A Girl of Purpose session is interesting, a moment of learning, mentorship and inspiration.
In this session, participants shared some of the most sensitive topics in the upbringing of a young girl through to the teenage phase to adulthood. It is a quite challenging session but a very educational lesson for all girls irrespective of one’s nationality and religion, especially in African context.
A small introduction about A Girl of Purpose was done since some of the ladies were new to the program. (For Details about this, refer to Purpose Rwanda Programs)
The session was guided by two major questions and ideas are briefly explained as follows:
What are some of the “Girl Values” that were prominent in the past centuries that should be brought back to the 21st century, especially today?
This question had a great number of reactions from the young ladies. A few of them can be highlighted in this report. The ideas expressed are valuable for all our readers. Participants had this to say:
According to Sylvia Uwera “the dressing code of the young ladies should be changed. Girls of the past used to have descent dressing codes unlike girls today.” The major idea here is, the dressing expresses something negative, promiscuous, provocative to the opposite sex. This is a recipe to immorality.
Clarisse Karangwe suggested that the “parenting style should be revised or improved. That the parents of today should try to copy the parenting styles of the past where our parents were more of examples to us than today’s parents.”
Revise Rwandan culture as suggested by Gentile Irafasha. To her, Rwandan culture should be revised and transformed to resemble Rwandan people of the past century. She feels that today’s girls no longer have the respect for the elders unlike the girls in the past and this puts them in situations where they don’t respect themselves too.
These were some of the main answers that the young ladies shared during the interesting session.
The second question reads: Does a young girl need a mentor in her life?
The general answer was YES and various reasons were given to support this answer:
“A mentor is one person that drives you to become who you want to become. A mentor helps you and guides you and if a young girl gets mentorship from the right mentor, then that girl is likely to become the best version of herself.” says Falida Umuhoza
“We all have mentors but sometimes fail to realize it. Very many young girls have mentors they look up to but some don’t realize it while others have the wrong choices of their mentors in life. So therefore, first you must realize who your mentor is and how the person is going to influence your life?” says Jane Zizane.
If a mentor cannot make your life better, cannot help you grow, and cannot influence you positively in many aspects, choose another one.
This session was great and we are looking forward to having more of such. You can join us in our next session!
