In 2016, I went to Rwanda with a team of 35 women from America in partnership with IF Gathering and Africa New Life. It was my first time going to Rwanda and my second time going to the continent of Africa. One of my favorite moments of the trip was the day we visited an Africa New Life boarding school and I found myself staring back at a room of over 150 Rwandan young women of high school age. They were beautiful, brilliant, wise and inquisitive. I shared poetry with them and told them a little bit about myself, my mom, grandma and sister.

 One of the young women raised her hand and asked where in Africa I was from. As the only black woman on my trip, I explained to her how most black people in America don’t know where we are from in Africa. I told her about the Transatlantic Slave Trade, how my ancestors were stolen from their homeland, and how no records were kept for us to be able to trace back to where our people had come from. “You are Rwandan,” she said and with a smile and three words she welcomed me to a homeland I had never had the opportunity to know.

This conversation resonated in my heart and sparked a dream to give other black women, many of whom have never had the opportunity to visit the continent of Africa, the chance to connect with leaders, mothers, sisters, and daughters in Rwanda. The girls and women of Africa New Life wanted to hear from us, and we needed to hear from them.

While in Rwanda last summer, I experienced the work of Africa New Life throughout the Rwandan community including: child sponsorship, sewing and cosmetology vocational training for women, school and education programs for children, and a school of theology for pastors. This year I am excited to return to Rwanda, and this time I am bringing the Woman to Woman Initiative, a team of black women from America, with me.

Woman to Woman is a group of life coaches, teachers, artists, mothers, daughters, engineers, entrepreneurs and more who are coming together to form a team that will inform, uplift, and learn from women in Rwanda.

Rwanda is a country that knows genocide and violence, but the Rwandan people also know healing, reconciliation and rebuilding. To lead in the work of love, healing, and justice, Black American women and Rwandan women are in a unique position to learn from and equip each other and the universal church.

We will spend our time in Rwanda facilitating reciprocal learning workshops about self-esteem with young women from the boarding school and entrepreneurial exchange sessions with the Africa New Life women by offering entrepreneurship and practical skills training to ensure the viability of their businesses which will support their families and the entire community.

Here’s How You Can Help

$3727.50 covers the trip of each participant. Any money raised above and beyond will be used to sponsor more women in Africa New Life vocational training programs.

Many have asked what you can do to support the work of justice and community. This is an opportunity to recognize and support the work of Black women here in America and abroad in Rwanda to build strong communities, know their roots and be equipped as leaders, students, and entrepreneurs.

Thank you for your support of Africa New Life and Woman to Woman!
Amena Brown