Youth and ICT for Development.

The youth in Rwanda makes up the largest percentage in population, since the population is big, the youth should get involved in active development of the country. Because ICT is one of the pillars of development, the youth in Rwanda should also get involved in ICT so as to help out in developing their nation. Recently, I was one of the lucky young men who attended a workshop organized by Rwanda development gateway, an ICT firm aimed at teaching the Rwandan youth on how they can use ICT to help develop their nation. The lessons were very beneficial and the youth had an opportunity to learn the basics of ICT and how it can be used as a tool for development. All people who attended the workshop went back home with minds full of knowledge on how they use ICT as a way towards development.
ICT as a common phase means Information Communication and Technology. If information is easily accessed in time, it’s one of the basics that help people achieve and develop. For instance if there is a job opportunity somewhere, for somebody to get employed, it’s when he/she is well informed and that’s no doubt one of the good things that should convince the youth to get involved in ICT. Another importance of ICT is that it involves communication and everyone very well knows that when there is efficient communication, it improves a lot in life of an individual, a country and the whole world. There are very many ways of how people can communicate; using phones, the internet where people share with each other everything, this helps with getting things done in time, which ensures better quality. It also helps in socialization, creating friends anywhere in the world and this helps in reducing isolation and improving relationships. It’s also important for the youth to get involved in ICT because it helps them to excel in business, an example is when advertising or selling on a website and creating awareness of your products and services to your customers. ICT is one of the basic tools that can be used to acquire a better quality education because people get a lot of information within a small time, do assignments easily, get a lot of research and excel in their studies, a thing I think is beneficial. ICT is very important and I urge the youth to get involved because it can them improve their health because they can be informed on how to avoid grave diseases like AIDS, avoid early pregnancies, treatment of diseases and also helps in medical research which all links to a better health.
There are very many importances of the youth getting involved in ICT, they all can’t mentioned but what’s known is they have a positive contribution to the country’s development, but one last thing I can’t forget to mention is the importance of ICT in leadership, if the Rwandan youth gets access to information which is enough, they can get involved in the leadership process, give out views, voice out opinions and exert pressure on policy makers to incorporate their perspectives and concerns hence get involved in all areas of the nation’s life and hence development of the country.
But though ICT has very many importances, if used badly it can have dangers and bad influence to the youth, so I urge the youth of our beautiful nation Rwanda to get involved in ICT for their own development and their country so that they can help in the reconstruction process and change Rwanda’s image from the Rwanda of genocide and hatred to a Rwanda of development, peace, unity, prosperity and opportunities.
Go ICT! Go Rwanda! Go development!!!

Unity and Reconciliation Process through Gacaca Courts in Rwanda.

After the 1994 Tutsi genocide, Rwanda had to rebuild and unite again. It’s in our nature that every society that’s united always achieves goals that they all believe in.
There were many genocide perpetrators, thousands of cases had to be tried and resolved and then unite Rwandans once again. The Rwandan government had to think of a way to get this issue resolved. Finally a solution came up and the government introduced a new system called “Gacaca courts”. The Gacaca courts were a traditional system that was practiced in the process of unity and reconciliation during the middle ages in Rwanda. In the process of unity and reconciliation, Gacaca courts are practiced in a way that the perpetrator, with the victim and the whole society around, has to honestly speak out the truth to what he/she did to the family members of the victim in order to get back the dignity of the victim. The whole society acts as mediators between the perpetrator and the victim until the solution is resolved.
The results have shown that thousands of cases have been tried using the Gacaca courts compared to any judicial system that has been entrusted with these conflict issues that were raised in Rwanda. Development is now being achieved. It’s all about the whole society being united.

The Youth Today

During the 90’s in Rwanda, great ideas and strong contributions from the youth were totally diverted to total destruction towards their own motherland….Rwanda. This is clear and proven during 1994 when the youth was taught, trained and encouraged to kill their own brothers, sisters and more to that reach an extent of killing their own parents. What a horrible situation it was. It is unbelievable but it is true this happened and it led to the 1994 Tutsi genocide as the rest of the world just watched.
Today, the youth is at its point of understanding and realizing that what it did was not important and now what to start offering to their country. Youth have great promises and looking at the highest peak of its country. Different institutions and more than 200 different youth groups and clubs have been developed and encouraged; they have all got one common interest which is “rebuilding their own country”. Every institution and youth group in Rwanda is now spreading the good message to the youth about development and rebuilding their country.
It’s everyone’s contribution, the youth is now lending a helping hand in building and making bricks to build houses for all genocide victims who are homeless, most especially students who don’t have anywhere to go during the vacations as their fellow classmates go to their homes. This is only one example, the world and its future existence is only going to base on the youth today.
In Rwanda today, the youth says there is no space and time for whoever wants to get them backwards. The youth today are the country’s future.

Gender Balance

Gender balance means equal participation of both men and women in different fields. We see gender balance as the key to Rwanda’s development in the following ways;
It has minimized the level of women that they have been depending on men and this has been achieved because women have got the rights that encourage them to work in any area because they can do all kinds of competitions with men in terms of searching for jobs.
It has diminished the level of divorces and separation and this is because women have got the same power as men and yet before 1994 women were inferior to men which was totally wrong thus led to low development in all aspects of life.
It has also led to the economic development of the country. Many women are talented in different qualifications even some women are stronger and more hardworking than men in doing business, working in offices and yet before the birth of gender balance, women were denied their rights because they were considered as people who couldn’t do anything but they could work well in homes cooking and taking care of children.
Therefore all Rwandese, we should stand together to strengthen and support gender balance.