About 60 talented youth have concluded a two-week boot camp under the Art Rwanda - Ubuhanzi programme, where they received mentorship on entrepreneurship, business skills, and pitching, among other things.
The programme is a nationwide talent search implemented by the Imbuto Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Culture, aiming at identifying and supporting talented young Rwandans in the creative arts industry.
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This year’s edition is the second one. It attracted thousands of contestants from various districts of the country, out of whom 60 were selected for the boot camp.
Speaking to the media, Sandrine Umutoni, the director general of the Imbuto Foundation, said the boot camp featured young people doing various arts including dance and music, fashion, acting and drama, cinematography, and literature, among others.
"It is a good programme that is in line with the country’s youth programmes. It aims at promoting young people’s talents, as well as assisting them to establish their own jobs,” she noted.
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A number of people who went through the first cohort of the Art Rwanda – Ubuhanzi programme in 2018 are doing some good work currently on the local market, according to Umutoni.
"Some have organised themselves in groups and established companies of their own. In addition to this, we have a sales point at KBC (Kigali Business Center), where the products that they make are sold,” she said.
Aimable Twahirwa, the director general for Culture Promotion at the Ministry of Youth and Culture, praised Art Rwanda – Ubuhanzi, saying it is a programme that prepares talented young people to face the market.
"We bring them teachers who give them lessons about business development so that they can be able to establish their own businesses,” he said.
He urged the youth to have values of hard work, respect and love for their country as they embark on their careers in art.
"Having talent is not enough. Our youth need to work hard as well. They also need to have Rwandan values, for example, respect and love for their country. We need young people who are fit for the future of Rwanda,” he noted.
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Diane Ishimwe, a plastic artist among the 60 young people who took part in the boot camp, said the lessons they learned have provided them with good knowledge about how to organise their businesses and develop themselves as artists.
Jovite Ihirwe, a musician who also participated in the boot camp, told the media in an interview, that the programme assisted them to understand how to study the market in order to know what clients want, and thus be more relevant.