Program description:
While toxic gender norms have suppressed Rwandan women and girls from reaching their fullest potential, Shooting Touch partners with an inspiring organization called Paper Crown Rwanda. Paper Crown Rwanda provides a Female Empowerment Curriculum with hopes to tackle low self esteem, low confidence, and increase young girls’ knowledge on their rights and freedoms. This program is offered to 30, 16-18 year old girls with the hope that leaders will emerge from this training to be able to extend their teachings to other girls they interact with on the court every day. The 3-month specialty course focuses on:
Leadership
Gender Education
Gender Based Violence
program goals:
Girls understand their rights and freedoms
Girls exhibit improved self-esteem
Girls are able to speak openly with confidence
Program Outcomes:
Over the 3-month course, Paper Crown Rwanda reports that the girls have become significantly more confident over time, they believe in their ability to try new things, and they believe in their ability to get back up if they fail or stumble. ST is thrilled with this partnership and have definitely succeeded in meeting our goals as the girls have no issue with sharing their opinions and believing that what they have to say matters.
“The highlight for me was learning about victim blaming, and that it is wrong. Before, I used to think it was partly your fault if you faced violence, but now I know it’s not my fault – it’s only the fault of the person who did the violence.”
Test Scores
“I shared what I learned with a best friend who came to me for advice; her boyfriend was pressuring her to have sex, and I told her if he really loves her, he will respect her choice, and so she decided not to sleep with him.”
Alongside the Female Empowerment Course, students participate in an all-female basketball league, competing against classmates from neighboring ST villages.
“I am part of a club called Young Life Club at the youth centre, and boys were saying that girls are weak, so I stood up and told them girls are the same, they are capable and strong just as boys are – some were convinced, others were not – but I was proud that I stood up and spoke out.”
Key Learning
The key learnings that have facilitated this growth in confidence were:
Knowing their rights (the right to be / do the same things that anyone else can do, men or boys)
Knowing the laws that protect them
Believing they can make decisions (and making them boldly and successfully)
Believing that their voices have inherent worth and value.
Key Processes
The key processes that have facilitated this growth in confidence were:
Having the girls speak openly and freely in front of us and each other in the style of our participatory workshops
Having the weekly club sessions to solidify the learnings and to continually open a space for them to speak out and practice using their personal voice again and again
Having them co-design their own clubs and take on that leadership role in the community.
“On the first day of Paper Crown, when they were preparing us for the Female Court Clubs, all the Rukara girls were shy. We couldn’t talk. Before class, we had a dancing circle competition and none of us even wanted to dance. After the Paper Crown curriculum, we knew we were ready. I was made vice president of the court club. I had to be a leader, teacher and an organizer. After the classes, I became confident. I’m proud of myself. Now, I can talk with my parents. I can answer questions in class. The girls I led and trained trust me. They come to me for advice.”