The hosts of Ni Nyampinga, a radio program produced by and for young women in Rwanda.
Antoinette on the air.
By: Ashley Murphy
At twenty-two years of age, Antoinette dreams of becoming a radio journalist, broadcasting about pertinent issues across the airwaves, to inform and inspire. Yet she also dreams of becoming a lawyer, defending the laws of her country and the rights of its citizens. Then again, she may aspire to become a film actress, fulfilling a third dream of jumping into fictitious roles to entertain. Whatever path she may choose, Antoinette has the power and confidence to forge her own way. Yet the seemingly basic attributes necessary to motivate youth to pursue endless avenues are less prominent in her culture than one may think. Antoinette is Rwandan, and this means many of her peers often lack the voice necessary to assert themselves and shape their futures into whatever they imagine. Furthermore, a deficit of available outlets through which young girls can exert themselves also contributes to limiting their potential.
Out of this void came Ni Nyampinga, a radio magazine program established by Search for Common Ground in partnership with Girl Hub in 2011 to shift the way young girls perceive themselves, from passive to proactive, timid to bold. It is meant to encourage, to inspire action, and to bring awareness to culturally-entrenched gender roles that can be debilitating for youth. Ni Nyampinga encapsulates the idea of a role model, hence deriving its name from the term, nyampinga, which in Rwandan culture refers to a young girl full of determination who is a role model for others. read more…
The following post was written by Summer Brown, Team Leader for PDEV II, a project that SFCG is currently involved with in the Sahel Region of Africa. To learn more about this project, see our recent blog post on it here. Summer is based in Niamey, Niger. Thank you, Summer, for sharing your beautiful reflections.
There are two sayings that I often return to in my life. The first is the ever popular quote by Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” The second is a verse from the Tao Te Ching, “Do you want to improve the world? I don’t think it can be done. The world is sacred. It can’t be improved. If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it.” I always come back to both of these because I find them beautiful and complex. They are similar to many of my journeys which are often full of contradictions. They leave me wondering if change is possible and if so, what is my role in that change? read more…
The SFCG Team in Nigeria Perseveres Despite Attacks in Jos
Suicide bomber strikes again in Jos, Nigeria. Photo credit: Premium Times
The following post was contributed by Lena Slachmuijlder, SFCG’s Chief Programming Officer, who is currently in Nigeria supporting SFCG’s team there. Thank you to Lena and our Nigeria staff for their willingness to share their thoughts on the recent terror attacks in Jos.
It’s Sunday morning, and Sarah Bentu is preparing to go to Church. Suddenly, she hears a huge explosion:
“I knew it was a bomb, so I just stayed inside. Later, I heard that someone I knew was at the Church. She didn’t make it.”
Sarah is the Program Assistant for Search for Common Ground in Jos, the capital of Plateau State of Nigeria, where inter-religious conflict has bred suspicion and mistrust, with Christians and Muslims living in segregated parts of the city. read more…
East Timor, a tiny half-island nation in the South Pacific, is holding influential elections in the wake of the death of its first president
Last week, Francisco Xavier do Amaral, East Timor’s first President and popular veteran of the nation’s resistance struggle against Indonesia’s 24-year occupation, died at age 74. He had been a candidate in East Timor’s upcoming March 17 presidential election. Following a brief civil war in 1975, Mr. Amaral declared independence for East Timor, a tiny half-island nation. He was appointed president, a position he held only for nine days before neighboring Indonesia invaded the territory.
Neighboring Indonesia occupied East Timor for 24 years, from 1975-1999
Following the death of one of this week’s presidential candidates, we asked our Country Director in Dili, Jose De Sousa (known as Quico), to share his thoughts about how these elections can proceed transparently and fairly.
Here is what Quico had to say: read more…
Youth representatives from the Sahel Region of Africa meet with PDEV II staff in Moussoro, Chad to discuss the needs of their communities
Last week we were fortunate enough to have our colleague Sophien Ben-Achour, Program Coordinator with SFCG, drop in and tell us about the work he is doing in the Sahel Region of Africa. The term Sahel (Arabic for “coast”) refers to the transition from the coastal regions and grasslands of West Africa to the Sahara desert in the North.
Sophien Ben-Achour explains a bit about the Sahel Region to his colleagues at SFCG
SFCG, working in conjunction with a consortium of NGOs, primarily International Relief & Development (IRD), Equal Access, and the Salam Institute for Peace and Justice, is laying the groundwork for “PDEV II,” (Peace Through Development II). This project focuses on three countries in particular: Niger, Chad, and Burkina Faso. The project is designed to reduce the risk of instability and increase resiliency to violent extremism in the Sahel region of Africa.. Sophien explained that read more…
International Women’s Day: Women Empowerment and Mainstreaming Gender Issues in Peacebuilding
In honor of International Women’s Day, we would like to introduce SFCG’s exciting new strategy for mainstreaming the issue of gender in peacebuilding in addition to providing short updates about a few of our ongoing projects that specifically focus on women’s empowerment. read more…
