Support 30 girls to break the cycle of violence

Dear friends of Paper Crown Rwanda, 

Clementine here, PCR’s Programs & Partnership Manager and Acting Director. I cannot believe how fast this year is flying by! It seems like just last week that I was writing our end-of-2021 report back in January. The last few months have been busy for us but very fulfilling, so business as usual! We’re implementing our current cycle of our flagship My Voice, My Power (MVMP) project, where where we educate adolescent girls and boys living in rural areas of Rwanda on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), child and human rights, and gender norms, and more. 

“This workshop showed me how girls are often abused and mistreated, and this touched my heart as a personal impact to me, it made me look for what I can do to stop that. I also made the decision of not becoming that kind of man who abuses women." - adolescent boy in urban Rwanda, aged 14-18, participant in PCR project.

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We’ve also been sharing a lot of great, informative content on our social media channels and in our newsletter. We talked in-depth about gender transformative approaches (GTA) and why they’re vital in our field of work, we celebrated International Women’s Day in March and shared inspiring stories of Rwandan women breaking biases, and we called for an end to (online) sexual assault and encouraging safe online spaces. 

This month, we’re covering all things accountability: what it is, who PCR is accountable to, and other interesting topics like genderwashing. We’ve been talking about some recent news in Rwanda and how that ties into community accountability. Learn more in our most recent monthly newsletter and our social media channels (linked below)! 

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We also have some updates on the progress with the Girls Level Up (GLU) project we’ve been fundraising for, and how we’ve started using your extremely generous donations to help pave the road toward gender equality in Rwanda. 

• A portion of the donated funds on GlobalGiving went toward expanding the PCR team, meaning we are able to expand our programming and impact. Our new trainer is Alice, and she’s doing an amazing job already supporting our MVMP project. This is what she's said of her time with us so far: 
  
  “Working with PCR has been eye opening for me. Through my participation and engagement with young people in the My Voice, My Power project, I have been able to learn even more about gender, gender-based violence (GBV), methodologies of breaking gender bias, challenging harmful gender norms, and bringing change in the community in a gender transformative approach. Furthermore, I have been able to be part of the team which uses participatory approaches and this has improved my critical thinking and training skills.” - Alice, PCR Gender Trainer
  
  
•  Another portion of the funds has gone toward what we in the gender-development field call “operational costs” which includes everything from supporting our staff with fair wages and to simply keeping a roof over our heads. This is especially important since many grants and funds don’t cover these types of requirements, so we’re extremely grateful for your support. 

We are truly amazed by the amount of supporters who have donated to our organization. We believe so much in the work that we do, and we are honored that you do too! We promise to keep you updated on our journey to ending harmful gender norms. Thank you all,

- Clementine

Links:

• PCR's monthly newsletter: May 2022
• What's happening with Miss Rwanda (on PCR Instagram)?
• Paper Crown Rwanda website