The Second Cohort of Open Skies Fellowship in Rwanda Selected — Twenty-Five Rwandan Youth Trained!
By Teta Naomi and Erneste Ntakobangize
The Open Skies Fellowship in Rwanda successfully trained and selected four female fellows among the 25 workshop participants. The workshop aimed at training young local experts in various cutting-edge technologies by equipping them with the knowledge, resources, and practices required to take their ideas from concept to prototype and, ultimately, to market.
We held a four-day workshop in Kigali, Rwanda, from November 7th to November 10th, 2022, in collaboration with our local partner, Natcom Services ltd, with the participation of 25 young people, 21 female and 4 male. The training took place at the Natcom Services Ltd. hub, which was fully equipped. Participants received hands-on instruction in emerging technologies and modern scientific methods.
The workshop helped to develop and cultivate the youth, particularly the women, to understand what is required and to equip them with new technology so that the next generation will be well-equipped and prepared to solve community problems.
We invited different facilitators to provide training and inspire the youth in the workshop, including; Brave Rubagumya, an Aerospace engineer from Rwanda’s leading drone company, Charis UAS Ltd, Dr. Jennifer Batamuriza, the chief executive officer of Rwa Tech, a hub that offers a variety of services in the technology sector and trains and mentors high school girls in the technology field, Mugisha Edwin of Zipline trained on 3D printing and machine learning, Mr. Boaz Mwubahimana from the University of Rwanda’s center for geographic information systems and remote sensing. The training was very diverse, giving participants the opportunity to learn about the application of technology in various fields.
In addition to providing participants with hands-on training, the experts instructed them on teamwork, pitching, sharing technology, ideas, and experiences, storytelling, photography, and videography. The final day of the workshop was focused on evaluating the effectiveness of the training by listening to participants share their learning and feedback. Each participant proposed a technological project that they would like to implement.
Following an evaluation of the project ideas presented, we selected four women for the second cohort of the Open Skies Fellowship in Rwanda. The selected fellows will receive funding and mentorship for six months to implement their projects, and they will preserve full ownership of their prototypes. We can’t wait to see how these young women put their projects into action and become problem solvers in the communities where they live.
To learn more about the fellowship, visit our website — https://openskiesfellows.org/
