Gender Equality Rwanda Project #17639

Help RESONATE Train 450 Rwandan Women Leaders

by Global Grassroots

Project Report | Jun 20, 2016
Project Closing: RESONATE'S New Giving Platform

By Ayla Schlosser | Co-Founder and Executive Director, RESONATE

In October of 2015 Resonate was awarded nonprofit status by the IRS, a designation that recognizes the work we have done to date, and marks a turning point in our growth as an organization. We have been working hard to build the programmatic infrastructure necessary to take our program to the next level and reach even more women and girls with our transformational leadership training.

This has been possible thanks to support from Global Grassroots as our fiscal sponsor, and we are closing our Global Giving project to take full ownership of our work moving forward. Through our four program areas – Storytelling for Leadership, Action Leadership, Professional Development, and Training of Facilitators – we have reached more than 1,000 participants.

One of those 1,000 participants, Immaculee, told us how her life had changed just a month after our training. During an interview she said,

“I can’t find a way to describe how much your training has changed my life. I have been experiencing violence in my marriage and I failed to stand up for my rights for many years. I am married and have eight children…my husband refused to take responsibilities of sending them to school and I kept quiet...After your training, the only child who managed to study up to primary six, he got high enough marks to continue with his education and my husband refused to help pay school fees. Thanks to your training, for the first time, I talked to our cell leader. They invited my husband for a meeting and requested him to get the money ($30USD) and send our child to school. I am happy that I advocated for my son and I wish I could have done the same for my other children.”

Immaculee’s self-confidence and willingness to stand up for herself will have a lasting impact on her and her children. Even though we are closing our GlobalGiving page, you can continue to have an impact on Immaculee and thousands of others like her by visiting our website: http://resonateworkshops.org

Links:

Home page of RESONATE

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Mar 22, 2016
The Business of Belief

By Ayla Schlosser | Co-Founder & Executive Director of RESONATE

Participants discuss community problems in Kayonza

Resonate is at a great stage of growth and well equipped to reach out to many girls and women. We have set an ambitious goal of serving 10,000 women over the next three years and this first term has provided us with the confidence to look at it as an achievable goal. Resonate’s product is well defined and we are clear on the value that our work is contributing to our partners and beneficiaries

During this first quarter we completed revision of our curriculum. Resonate team has been working with an independent consultant to standardize our curriculum and improve the content. This is one of the biggest achievements and we believe that it is going to play a big role in accelerating our impact. Our next focus is looking for opportunities to work with organizations that may integrate our curriculum into their existing program to ensure the sustainability and impact for more women around East Africa.

We have managed to revise our monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system and are piloting new survey questions that will help us more accurately measure our impact and as we roll out this new M&E system we expect to improve our communication regarding our impact.

We are still at the beginning of a year and look forward to success. We have initiated a search to hire a trainer who will complement our effort in achieving our goals. Given our current outreach push and anticipated spike in training requests as a result, we believe that it is the right moment to expand the team and hope to get the best fit for the organization.

Impact Story:

Godeberte is a graduate from Cornerstone Development high school. Last year, she went through our Storytelling training with 20 of her classmates. At the end of a two-day workshop, they set and wrote down their leadership goals. Recently, when we did our follow up with them, Godeberte was excited to share with us the progress she has made towards her goals.

“Your training helped me to not only believe in myself but also to set a goal,” says Godeberte. Her main goal was to be able to earn income that can help her to continue her studies without depending on anyone’s support. Together with her sister, they managed to open a small shop in Musanze, the income of which is helping support her as she starts her University in August. Godeberte also gives a tutoring class to 40 students in Math and Chemistry. “I also wanted to help my fellow sisters and brothers in my community, especially helping them to love and perform well in science. I value education and feel proud to help these students to perform well in their studies, she says.”

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Dec 29, 2015
Lots to Celebrate!

By Ayla Schlosser | Co-Founder & Executive Director, Resonate

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