{"id":6395,"date":"2019-11-06T09:49:40","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T06:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=6395"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:39","slug":"how-two-young-rwandan-women-changed-the-lives-of-an-entire-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/11\/06\/how-two-young-rwandan-women-changed-the-lives-of-an-entire-village\/","title":{"rendered":"How Two Young Rwandan Women Changed The Lives Of An Entire Village"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Yariv Cohen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa\u2019s never-ending lands,\npanoramic views, intriguing culture, and special cuisine go hand in hand with\nsome very specific needs and challenges. But alongside the many issues that the\ncontinent faces, there is an abundance of responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So is the case of Tharcille\nTuyisenge and Grace Uwase, who have decided to take action – and bring impact\nto the lives of people they have never even met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks ago, I visited\nIgnite Power HQ in Rwanda, where the company has been operating for the past 5\nyears, providing home solar solutions to hundreds of thousands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Just before leaving the\noffice, I saw one of the employees arranging a large sum of cash; I was\nconfused, as Ignite is leading the transition to a cashless economy, with all\nclient payments are made using mobile money. I asked how such a large sum found\nits way to the office, and I was certainly not expecting the response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s finance manager\npointed at a 20 and 23-year-old ladies, Tharcille and Grace, and said they came\nto purchase solar home systems to distribute to families in Rwamagana, one of\nRwanda\u2019s districts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I visited the district\nthe day before to meet the mayor,  Mbonyumuvunyi Rajab, and together we\ndiscussed ways to provide the furthest, most rural communities with power.\n\u201cProviding all people in the district with power is one of our greatest goals\u201d,\nhe says. \u201cThanks to our partnership with Ignite Power, we are getting closer to\nachieving this goal with every day\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is nothing more\nfundamental and influential than electricity\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tharcille and Grace grew up\nin Kigali. After high school, they attended the \u201cBridge to Rwanda\u201d scholars\u2019\nprogramme, which prepares high performing students from East Africa to attend\nundergraduate studies abroad. During the spring semester, Tharcille and Grace\napplied for the Master Card Foundation (MCF) Scholars Program at the African\nLeadership Academy grant, which offered a financial grant to young people with\nideas for ventures that would have a significant social impact on the local\ncommunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have explored various\noptions in which they could have a big impact, and finally decided to focus on\nhome electricity. \u201cWe\u2019ve concluded that there is nothing more fundamental and\ninfluential than electricity,\u201d Grace says. \u201cIt enables economic prosperity,\nbetter education, and of course better health\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the World Bank,\nmore than one billion people today live without access to electricity in their\nhomes. Thanks to the efforts and resources invested by the government of Rwanda\nto eliminate this phenomenon, the number of connected residents in the country\nhas risen in recent years. Yet, millions of people in the country, and hundreds\nof millions in Africa, are still living without access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis initiative perfectly\nembodies MasterCard\u2019s Foundation\u2019s vision for a better future,\u2019\u2019 says Suzanne\nHunter, Director of Scholar Search and Selection at African Leadership Academy,\nfunded by the Mastercard Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are proud to support such\ninspiring young entrepreneurs and to sponsor their first steps in the field of\nimpact entrepreneurship. Providing people with electricity for the first time\nmakes a huge difference, and together with other initiatives sponsored by the\nfoundation, creates a massive global impact\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After some in-depth research\nwork and application filling, Tharcille and Grace were awarded the grant. They\nchose to purchase home solar systems for families in Rwamagana district,\nproviding safe and sustainable electricity in one of the villages. They\nresearched various companies and suppliers, and finally chose Ignite Power.\n\u201cInitially, we were planning to purchase 10-12 systems,\u201d they say. \u201cBut when we\ntalked with Ignite, we realized that we can increase the number of systems to\nmore than double\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, new home solar systems\nhave been installed in the homes of 25 families in the Rwamagana district, and\nTharcille and Grace are hoping this is just the beginning. They advise young\npeople who want to make a change in the country \u201cnot to be afraid of taking a\nrisk, as risks and opportunities come hand in hand. Failure is not a bad thing,\nquite the opposite: It is the way to realize our goals and dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rwanda and Africa, in\ngeneral, have a lot of work to do to achieve the goal of connecting all people\nto electricity. Joint efforts by local governments, international\norganizations, business companies – and local entrepreneurs such as Tharcille\nand Grace, lead the continent toward a much better, brighter, future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Original Article<\/a> on The New Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yariv Cohen Africa\u2019s never-ending lands, panoramic views, intriguing culture, and special cuisine go hand in hand with some very specific needs and challenges. But alongside the many issues that the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}