By Clementine Nyirarukundo | Programs & Partnerships Manager; Acting Director
Dear Paper Crown Rwanda family,
On behalf of the PCR team, I would like to wish everyone a very happy new year! I am sitting here, in our office looking at Kigali’s hilly scenery, reflecting a lot about PCR over the last year. 2021 was such an interesting and exciting year for our organisation, with a lot of challenges, inspirations, and new experiences. With all of these things, Paper Crown has been changing, adapting, and growing.
As we wrapped up the year and are now setting our sights on the future, our team is reflecting on all the things we’ve accomplished, all the amazing people we’ve worked with, and the incredible support we’ve gotten from you all. Here are some 2021 highlights we’re really proud of:
Despite COVID, Paper Crown has remained active, continuing our work in the field while maintaining all proper health precautions and following all guidelines.
We successfully completed another round of My Voice, My Power, which usually runs over 6 months, in just 3 months time! We also completed a cycle of Court Clubs with our amazing partner, Shooting Touch. We conducted a youth event with the Rwandan Organization of Women with Disability (UNABU) on gender and disability. We hosted a special event for gender and GBV practitioners and partners on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, partnering with Kvinna Till Kvinna and the European Union in Rwanda.
We reached every single province in Rwanda through radio ads about gender based violence during the #16DaysOfActivism campaign, which is the first time we’ve had such an expansive reach around the whole country.
And… incredibly… We conducted our first ever official crowdfunding campaign. Thanks to you and so many other generous supporters, Paper Crown Rwanda successfully graduated the GlobalGiving Accelerator programme in September 2021, and raised $7,431 amount by the end of the year!
With this incredible amount of money, you have directly contributed to us being able to start some necessary steps toward implementing our Girls Level Up (GLU) project!
Now, in January 2022, we plan to use this first portion of our $26,850 total goal to hire a gender trainer to join our team, which will help us reach more communities and expand our projects, and to pay rent for 5 months so that we can continue to have a roof over our heads while we work and continue to impact the lives of women and girls in Rwanda every day!
We’ll keep you all updated on our progress towards our overall goal of funding GLU completely. Thank you to everyone who has taken a stand against harmful gender norms, and supported our grassroots, transformative work in Rwanda. Together, we can do anything!
- Clementine
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