Our participants’ stories
Odette attended Resonate’s workshop through Kasha Rwanda
Adelphine attended Resonate’s workshops through Cricket Build Hope
Marembo
About the participant:
Marembo is 21 years old and lives in Kicukiro District. She attended Resonate’s workshop through a virtual workshop with YWCA.
Before Resonate:
Marembo was new in her position as a mentor to young teen mothers in YWCA, and she was not comfortable speaking to people, especially that among the people she had to mentor there were some who were older than her.
After Resonate:
She learned how to communicate effectively and how to use a story in communicating with others, which helped her a lot especially when speaking to the girls she mentors, today those girls are open to sharing all their problems which makes her job easier and more impactful. She has already started to save happily which was very hard to convince before she learned how to connect with them.
In Her Own Words:
“Before I could just read the curriculum for the girls I mentor, but today I use stories to help them understand the content and apply it fast.”
Marie Louise
About the participant:
Marie Louise is 23 years old and lives in Gicumbi District. She attended Resonate’s Workshop through the NYC Storytelling for Leadership for young girls who faced early pregnancy.
Before Resonate:
Marie Louise was not confident and she was afraid to take the risk of starting a business because she assumed that she would fail.
After Resonate:
The hummingbird story really helped Marie Louise. She learned to be proactive and to find solutions in the face of her own challenges. She became more confident and she gained the courage to make decisions. Marie Louise is now part of a savings group, she started her own small business of selling fruits at a local market in Kabuga and later used the money earned to buy a sewing machine and she is now a successful tailor. The workshop has helped her to become financially independent and she is now able to take care of her baby’s basic needs as well as her own without depending on the baby’s father.
In Her Own Words:
“The hummingbird story inspired me to think of how I could change my situation”.
Martin
About the participant:
Martin is 30 years old and lives in Gicumbi District. He attended Resonate’ workshop through a virtual workshop with National Youth Council.
Before Resonate:
Martin has been working with for a long time, but he had no strategy to attract many youths in different activities he was organizing in their sector. Youth participation was really low, and one of the reasons was the way he approached them, by commending them instead of first connecting with them and understand them.
After Resonate:
He learned that a leader is not someone who is superior but a person who is proactive in face of challenges like the hummingbird. He learned the new approach of storytelling to engage the youth, started being exemplary, and since then the youth participation increased and youth started being more open to him and even came up with new ideas by themselves.
In His Own Words:
“I would say that Resonate changed my perspective of leadership, I did not have to be very superior but to be on the same level with the people I lead.”