{President Paul Kagame yesterday told a gathering of young professionals that pursuing their dreams and becoming what they want to be in life was their right but also their responsibility.}<\/p>\n
Kagame was speaking at Imbuto Foundation Young Professionals\u2019 Forum in Kigali held under the theme, \u201cBeyond This Moment.\u201d The forum brought together 500 professionals from private and public sector in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot change nor do anything about our past. We can only draw lesson from that past, but we can change our moments and our future. \u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The President told youth at the young Rwandans that dignity and pride are essential but are only made real by action.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur pride should be backed up by action. We must match our pride, our aspirations with what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The President pointed to Rwanda\u2019s past as an unforgettable lesson in taking responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty years ago, the country was standing at the edge. One step further and no one knows where we would have been. Who did you see in this whole world coming to save you?\u201d<\/p>\n
President Kagame added that the responsibility to shape one\u2019s future should never be delegated:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think someone is going to save you from being on the edge, you are as mistaken as you were 20 years ago. No one will show up. And why should you expect them to? No one else will do the hard work for you. Understand from the beginning that you are the one to carry this burden.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pointing to the prevailing tendency for African nations to be lectured or defined by others, Kagame urged the youth to demand more from themselves and have the courage to stand up to injustice:<\/p>\n
\u201cHave the courage to say no, this is not for me, this is not where I belong. I reject it. Just like young people got together and rejected injustice and being stateless forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Kagame cautioned against placing praise above action.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t celebrate too much, don\u2019t congratulate yourself too much. Just feel proud that you stood up for yourself and be ready to do it whenever it comes up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On the issue of building one nation, Kagame called on the youth to build a nation that leaves no citizen behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember you are not alone. Think of everything as we. The beauty of we is that it leaves no one behind and includes you.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are one family. We are different. We can argue. But in the end, we come back together.The moment we allow ourselves not to be the family of Rwandans that we are, we are losing collectively and individually,\u201d Kagame added.<\/p>\n
\u2018Sparks of innovation\u2019<\/p>\n
Earlier during the forum, First Lady, Jeannette Kagame told the young professionals that if they are to achieve more than what they have today, they ought to take on new challenges and pursue innovative ideas to the limit.<\/p>\n
\u201cRwanda is at a stage where we know that anything is possible; we know this because we continue to see sparks of innovations and moments of brilliance in the youth. To be impactful, we need to cultivate the spirit of connecting the good work we do at different levels, building confidence based on knowledge and sharing our knowledge with others,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mrs Kagame added that, \u201cWhat we mostly have is a solid foundation but we cannot remain at the foundation level, we need to aspire for more and for better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the past seven years, different forums discussed topics including Seeds of Leadership, while the foundation supported young people to navigate the pathways of life and select the ingredients that lead to success.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have encouraged youth to become ambassadors of change and to begin their journey with and in their mind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are optimistic that the fire to push the boundaries of excellence, innovation and creativity, has been ignited in you. But one the key things that we have learned through our experience is that the fire at times dies down shortly after our interactions. We want to encourage a more long term outlook at the important issues we take on.\u201d<\/p>\n
In inspiring young professionals to aim farther than their reach, the First Lady said Rwanda is at a stage where we know that anything is possible because of its innovative and brilliant youth.<\/p>\n
The Minister for Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, tipped the youth on how to exploit the opportunities at their disposal saying that with a growing economy, opportunities are in abundance.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be able to start with what you have in your hands whatever small and apply resilience. Whatever you have as an idea you can start from it and achieve great thing.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The forum drew several speakers on crosscutting topics. Among the speakers was Verna Eggleston, the former commissioner of New York City\u2019s Human Resources Administration.<\/p>\n
In inspiring the youth to go beyond their reach, Eggleston said, \u201cthe boundaries of your community will be the boundaries of your world meaning that if you only know your community and its limited, then your world will be limited \u2013 that will be your point of entry and your point of exit and there will be no more for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
{{The New Times}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{President Paul Kagame yesterday told a gathering of young professionals that pursuing their dreams and becoming what they want to be in life was their right but also their responsibility.} Kagame was speaking at Imbuto Foundation Young Professionals\u2019 Forum in Kigali held under the theme, \u201cBeyond This Moment.\u201d The forum brought together 500 professionals from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000055455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-17848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000055455,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17848.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17848.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17848.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17848.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17848.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17848.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000055455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17848"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=17848"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=17848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}