Girl Hub Rwanda held its first graduation June 17 for the six pioneer young women from its Girl Research Unit.
The young women from different districts across Rwanda have completed nearly two years of extensive training in qualitative research skills.
The event was attended by friends and families of the graduates, as well as representatives of Rwandan based research centers.
In partnership with Market Research Society (MRS) and UK-based organization 2CV, the Girl Research Unit is an initiative started by Girl Hub Rwanda that aims to arm the young women with research skills that will be used to tell the stories of girls in Rwanda.
The training sessions cover research principles, recruitment in the field, facilitation of workshops and research, analysis and interpretation, and presentation of results from the research to clients.
The girls graduate with credible international qualification from the Market Research Society in qualitative research skills and are now equipped with girl-centered research techniques that contribute to their work with the Ni Nyampinga magazine and radio and other platforms.
The students presented on the journey they have gone through, discussed the challenges they have overcome and outlined how they plan to use their newly acquired skills.
They gave an example of research they carried out in districts all over Rwanda to gauge whether or not girls were being reached by a Ni Nyampinga promotional campaign that was being carried out in rural areas.
The insight gained during this field research directly resulted in implementation of changes to the Ni Nyampinga campaign.
The Vice President of Market Research at MRS, Ms. Phyllis Macfarlane, expressed her pride in being able to see these young women gain qualifications that will contribute to growth in their professional and personal lives and that will help them build on their careers and become very successful Rwandan women in the field of research.
Frida Uwera, one of the trainees, echoed this sentiment by saying that, “…the Frida of today is completely different from the Frida of 2012. The skills I have gained from this journey have made me into an amazing lady who can publicly to talk to more than 100 people and convince them.”
Beatha Kayirangwa, the class representative, stated in her closing speech that, “we want to thank our trainers, families and friends for supporting us during these last two years and request that you help us continue on this path to being great researchers”.
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