The countrys first female professional football coach Grace Nyinawumuntu is working to change gender barriers and the stereo type perception that women can’t do certain things. Nyinawumuntu was the first Rwandan women to become an international referee in 2004, and later became the first female professional football coach in 2008. She had a hand in the formation of the Association Sportive de Kigali women’s team (AS Kigali), and her side went on to win the national women football championship a record five times in arrow since 2010. She played in the first national women’s team in 2009 though the team never played in major competitions and become the team’s head coach in January 2014. Born in Rwanda‘s Kayonza District in the Eastern Province, Nyinawumuntu grew up an orphan after her parents died in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. From a young age, Nyinawumuntu says she liked playing football with her male cousins. “Football is my passion from childhood, and coaching at this level gives me the greatest pleasure in life,” Nyinawumuntu says. In 2002, after completing her secondary school she joined Camp Kigali-based Urumuri women football club.In 2013 Grace Nyinawumuntu was awarded by DIVA Africa awards limited for her role in development women’s football in Rwanda Nyinawumuntu says her main goal is to change the ‘wrong’ perception that women who play football are different from those who don’t. Recently married, she admits that her husband has, at some point, asked her to give up coaching because he doesn’t t think football is an appropriate career for a married woman. She reveals, “He (her husband) has tried on several occasion but I have (continuously) tried to convince him that that there is totally nothing wrong with women playing, and or coaching football.” Football has long been a boy‘s game in Rwanda as in many other parts of the world. Although women’s involvement in football is more culturally accepted now, playing or coaching football is still considered an ‘inappropriate’ career for women. Undeterred, women have been challenging the stereotype by pursuing their passions through careers as football players, referees and coaches. The national women football team, under Nyinawumuntu, debuted on January 16, 2014, in the 2014 African Women’s Championship first qualification round, against Kenya in the Kigali Regional Stadium in Nyamirambo, where they won 1–0 by a goal scored by Alice Niyoyita in the first leg. In the second leg, at the Kenyatta Stadium, She-Amavubi lost 2–1, with Rwanda’s all-important away goal scored by Jeanne Nyirahatashima. Rwanda qualified to the second round by away goals rule after finishing 2–2 in aggregate and will play against Nigeria. Its third official match was disputed on 13 May 2014 against Zambia and ended in a 3–0 loss. However, the 2014 African Women’s Championship second round qualifier, first leg against Nigeria on May 24, 2014, ended in 4–1 home defeat. Clementine Mukamana scored Rwanda’s only goal. In the second leg, on June 7, the She-Amavubi lost by a crushing 8–0 defeat, hence eliminating them from Championship by 12–1 aggregate score. Nigeria went on to win the championships, which was held in Windhoek, Namibia.
