Girls’ secondary school

COE components

  • Bursaries for underprivileged
  • Gender-Responsive Pedagogy training for teachers
  • Science, Mathematics&Technology programme
  • Tuseme youth empowerment programme
  • HIV/AIDS programme
  • Counselling

Established 1999

  • 160 female students
  • 10 teachers

2009

  • 700 female students
  • 23 male teachers
  • 12 female teachers

Challenges

  • Poverty
  • Cultural practices&attitudes
  • Genocide orphans
  • Genocide trauma

Outcomes since creation

  • 83.4% improvement in O-Level national exams
  • 72.5% improvement in A-Level national exams
  • 93 % improvement in end-of-year school exams
  • 100% improvement in enrolment rates for girls
  • 99% improvement in retention rates for girls
  • 100% improvement in completion rates for girls
  • 100% improvement in transition rates for girls from O-Level to A-Level
  • 80% improvement in transition rates for girls from for A-Level to university
  • 99.9% reduction in schoolgirl pregnancy rates
  • 99% reduction in sexual harassment
  • 100% of girls in school committees and other leadership roles

Girls are:

  • Assertive
  • Confident in facing challenges
  • Able to solve
  • Aware of their rights
  • Able to defend their rights
  • Empowered to understand they are equal to boys
  • Able to compete favourably with boys
  • Active in community programmes, e.g., support to orphans, the poor, etc.

“I was a student at FAWE Girls’ School from 1999 to 2005. I studied Mathematics and Physics at A-Level which my family and my friends did not want me to study. They used to tell me that girls can’t manage Science courses. I didn’t listen to them because I wanted to challenge what they were calling reality. It was not easy but I thank FAWE mentors like Nyakurama who is my role model in my studies.”

Grace Kabatesi
Third year student
Department of Computer Engineering and Information Technology
Kigali Institute of Science and Technology

“Since we come from diverse backgrounds, each of us has gone through her/his own difficulties in life. I come from a humble background. My parents struggled to pay school fees. After just one term in Senior One I was asked to leave school. My parents didn’t do that because they didn’t want me to study, but because they had no money or any other means. I was feeling isolated and worried over my future. My performance at school was excellent but as time went on, it started to decline. It felt like the end of my life was approaching. But then FAWE stepped in. Luckily I was enrolled on a scholarship programme. This assistance eliminated my academic problems by enabling me to get school fees, sanitary kits and transport. For this reason, I am determined to continue my studies up to university and ultimately help myself, my country and those in a similar situation.”

Jackline Uwizeye
18 year
Grade 12 student
FAWE Girls’ School