Women’s and youth empowerment in one of the world’s ‘best tourism villages’


Women's and youth empowerment in Rwanda with Red Rocks Initiatives for Sustainable Development
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Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ives for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment runs con­ser­va­tion- and com­munity-based tour­ism pro­jects in and around the Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park in Rwanda. Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park is most fam­ous for being one of the last hab­it­ats for moun­tain gorillas.

Our ini­ti­at­ives include advan­cing the import­ant cause of women’s and youth empower­ment with­in our communities.

The non­profit Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ives was spun off from Red Rock Rwanda, which is a social enter­prise that is all about travel & tour­ism that pro­motes sus­tain­ab­il­ity through vari­ous com­munity, cul­tur­al, and envir­on­ment­al programs. 

Read more about Red Rocks Rwanda & Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ives, includ­ing “Bey­ond ‘volun­tour­ism’: Can you help Rwanda with sus­tain­able tour­ism and com­munity development?”

Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ives helps bring com­munit­ies into the tour­ism sup­ply chain by sup­port­ing com­munity devel­op­ment pro­jects that help people help themselves.

In Nkot­si vil­lage, Rwanda, which is con­sidered among the ‘Best Tour­ism Vil­lages’ by the United Nations World Tour­ism Organ­iz­a­tion (UNWTO), our cur­rent pro­jects include train­ing com­munity mem­bers in skills that can improve their live­li­hoods post COVID-19.

As we mit­ig­ate the impacts of the pan­dem­ic, we work with loc­al organ­isa­tions to cre­ate employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies for women and youth as well as run edu­ca­tion­al, agri­cul­tur­al, and cul­tur­al con­ser­va­tion pro­grams that bene­fit them and the whole community. 

Many of these ini­ti­at­ives are led by Peace Gat­era and Laissa Isheija who are enthu­si­ast­ic about women’s and youth empower­ment in both eco­nom­ic and social terms.

Peace Gatera and Laissa Isheija are working toward women's and youth empowerment in Rwanda
Peace Gat­era (left) and Laissa Isheija

“One of my vis­ions is for many of our young people and women to par­ti­cip­ate in innov­at­ive con­ser­va­tion, poverty-alle­vi­ation, and com­munity empower­ment ini­ti­at­ives through tour­ism,” Ms Gat­era said.

Ms Isheija is “always happy” to take the lead in women’s and youth empower­ment. To lead by example, Laissa has joined the loc­al guid­ing asso­ci­ation to give her “the chance to inter­act with dif­fer­ent people around the world”.

Women’s and youth empowerment through education

Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ives enables young people (and all com­munity mem­bers) to access a vari­ety of edu­ca­tion­al paths designed to build prac­tic­al skills in line with the sus­tain­able tour­ism devel­op­ment in the area. The courses help people under­stand the value of their com­munity, cul­tur­al, and nat­ur­al resources and their conservation.

Women’s and youth empowerment through agriculture

The Igi­hoho pro­ject was ini­ti­ated in 2016 with the aim of redu­cing the use of plastic bags for seed­lings. In Nkot­si vil­lage and sur­round­ing areas, plastic seed bags have been replaced by eco-friendly bags made from banana bark. 

The Igi­hoho pro­ject dir­ectly involves 20 women who help meet the demand for more sus­tain­able products while gen­er­at­ing incomes for themselves. 

We also train com­munity mem­bers in small anim­al live­stock sup­port programs.


Red Rocks Initiative for Sustainable Development

By imple­ment­ing these ongo­ing women’s and youth empower­ment ini­ti­at­ives, as well as whole-of-com­munity events such as the annu­al Red Rocks Cul­tur­al Fest­iv­al, we sup­port loc­al people in their goals of improv­ing their lives, provid­ing a sus­tain­able future for their house­holds, and link­ing them with new friends and sup­port­ers from around the world. 

If you are inter­ested in part­ner­ing with us on any pro­ject, we at Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ives for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment would love to hear from you. Please email info@redrocksinitiative.org.

About Red Rocks Initiatives for Sustainable Development

Greg Bakunzi
Mes­sage author­ised by Greg Bak­un­zi, founder of Red Rocks Rwanda and the Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment.

Drip­ping with sus­tain­able tour­ism and com­munity devel­op­ment poten­tial, the Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park in north­west­ern Rwanda is one of the last hab­it­ats in the world for moun­tain gorillas.

Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment is advoc­at­ing eco­tour­ism and cul­tur­al tour­ism as part of its pro­gram to pro­mote sus­tain­able com­munity devel­op­ment around Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park.

The non­profit is a spin off from Red Rock Rwanda, which is a social enter­prise that is all about travel & tour­ism that pro­motes sus­tain­ab­il­ity through vari­ous com­munity, cul­tur­al, and envir­on­ment­al programs. 

We believe eco­tour­ism and cul­tur­al tour­ism activ­it­ies can gen­er­ate con­sid­er­able bene­fits for our com­munit­ies, as well as provide invalu­able inter­cul­tur­al and know­ledge exchange bey­ond tra­di­tion­al ‘volun­tour­ism’. 

Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ives involves loc­al people in everything it does. In that spir­it, we wish to forge part­ner­ships with like-minded indi­vidu­als and organ­isa­tions from around the world who would like to help us advance our sus­tain­able tour­ism and com­munity devel­op­ment projects. 

We would love to hear from you. Please email info@redrocksinitiative.org

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