Then I heard, “And the winner is Wendo Dorcas”. That evening I took the trophy to my room, sat on my hotel bed and cried until my ribs hurt, I cried for the woman who did not have confidence in herself, who considered herself inferior, who was fearlessly afraid, who was so proud of herself, for doing something she had never done before. She had pitched and won. Yes!

Today is the International Day of the Girl, a celebration of girls and young women everywhere and the Day of the Girl’s theme for 2016 is ‘What Counts for Girls: the Role of Data in Measuring Progress’, designed to address gaps in data on girls worldwide.

This month is my third month working as a Trainer at Resonate and every time I talk to women and girls that we train for follow-up, I keep being blown away by what women are capable of achieving. They create changes for themselves, their families and their communities once they are helped to have a sense of self-confidence in their abilities and given some tools for leadership and decision-making.

My dream was to become an engineer even though I knew it was going to be a big challenge for two reasons: taking many hours of sciences, and lack of support from my classmates and friends. It seemed to me it was almost a given that sciences aren’t female subjects, and that as a girl even if I attempted I would not perform as well as a boy would. I demonstrated the opposite, I was able to graduate from engineering school and now my goal is to inspire other girls to believe in themselves and never let others make decisions for them.

Aline Mwiza Uwashimimana lives in Muhanga, the Southern Province of Rwanda and works as a sales person for UAP Insurance/Muhanga. Aline attended Resonate’s Storytelling for Leadership training through our partnership with Cornerstone Leadership Academy-Rwanda, where she completed her high school education in Biology, Chemistry and Geography.

Anyone who knew me can attest to the fact that I was a pretty energetic little girl – or, as my mother was fond of saying, I had chutzpah. I climbed trees, I raised my hand in class, and I’d try anything my older brother would, just to prove that I could. My parents told me (and truly believed) that I could do anything I wanted. I think I can, too – but it requires extra work and energy to break down barriers that exist for women.

It was a Monday, October 10, 2015 when I left Kigali for Nyaruguru. It started as a sunny and bright beautiful morning. It was a five hours drive, and by the time we arrived in Nyaruguru some rain drops had started falling down which was absolutely thrilling to every resident in the area based on their agricultural season expectations.

This past week in Kigali, Rwanda leaders from across the globe gathered at the Transform Africa Summit. During her address First Lady of Rwanda Jeanette Kagame urged attendees to close the gender equality gap long before the stated Sustainable Development Goal of 2030.

Rwanda is ranked among the countries with the fastest growing rate of economic development worldwide – but it hasn’t always been this way.