Excella school visit by Purpose Rwanda on February 15th (attended by about 200 students of Advanced Level) was aimed at taking the message of Purpose Development and Support as well as Positive and Addiction Free Generation to the students/youth. Key topics were presented and discussions were guided by this theme: Purposeful Youth and War Against Addiction to National Development at All Times. Presentations focused in four major areas are as follows: Firstly, Purpose Development and Support and the topic was The Value of Purposeful Youth in Sustainable National Development, secondly, presentation on Positive and Addiction Free Living, focused on eliminating all forms of addiction in Rwanda. This was the first group to speak to our youth of today. (a) How can the youth be empowered to reject all forms of addiction today? (b) Why should the focus be the youth of or in Rwanda? (c ) What is the benefit of living Purposefully, Positively and Addiction Free for our country Rwanda? Thirdly, the presentation on Abstinence from pre-marital sex was about how Important it is for the youth of and in Rwanda to avoid indulging but rather to refrain from pre-marital sex at all costs?
After the presentations, the Purpose Rwanda team administered questionnaires and interviews on various issues that fall within the powerful message of the organization to the students/youth. The responses from the students are presented as follows:
Students were asked if they are committed towards abstinence from pre- marital sex. The results: out of 84 respondents, 61% of the respondents say they are committed to abstinence but 39% say they were not sure. The participants were further asked if the conference satisfied their expectation. All say they were satisfied. They were also asked if they would need more conferences in their school and all (100%) expressed interest for more Purpose Rwanda conferences. Another very interesting question was to establish if the students were inspired to lead a purposeful, positive, and Addiction free life. The result: 91% say they were inspired, but 9% had their own freedom of expression, and they said they were not inspired.
Students were also asked if they would share with us (Purpose Rwanda) what their purpose(s) is/are and something new they learned today. Some of the responses are as follow:
(a) My purpose is to give justice to those who seek for it, and we have learned that if you want to be a good person, you start being that right now.
(b) Change, it’s never too late to make the right choice and change.
(c) Not allowing sex until my marriage and working hard for my future.
(d) To live and die for my purpose.
(e) My purpose is to be an addition free person. What I have learned is to abstain from pre- marital sex.
Purpose Rwanda Mission also posed this question: How are you going to apply your purpose and what you have gained today through this conference? Here are some of the responses:
(a) I will work towards the right attitude with positivity.
(b) I will get more ideas from elders.
(c) I will display discipline.
(d) I am going to apply my purpose by leaving negative peer interactions. What I gained through this conference is that we have to be girls of purpose.
(e) Living every day, a step of progress towards my dream.
The participants were also asked to say/write any other thing in their mind that they would like to share with Purpose Rwanda and here are some of their responses:
(a) We are so grateful for your visit. We learned a lot.
(b) Promote anti-drug abuse clubs in our school.
(c) You are doing a great job! God bless you.
(d) This is a very motivating group, and you guys are going to succeed in everything you do.
(e) We are grateful for your time.
All in all, Purpose Rwanda was also inspired from the participation and responses from the students. Through Monitoring and Evaluation action, we shall learn a lot from the responses we received from Excela School and those responses will inform our future continuous, consistent interactions.
