EMMANUEL HABIYAMBERE, an actor and winner of the iAccelerator phase 3, is now head of Gisiza health Centre in Gicumbi District, Northern Province. The 29-year-old acts as Mudidi in ‘Menya Wirinde’, a Rwandan film that educates its audience about Sexual Reproductive Health among the Rwandan youth. Habiyambare combined hos passion for the arts with healthcare, and has five years of experience in health care provision where he worked in hospitals like Butaro Cancer Centre. Commenting about his appointment, he expressed his gratitude to the Rwandan Government for believing in the youth. What I can say about my appointment is that I am grateful to the Government of Rwanda for trusting me, it’s so awesome to see how our Government believes in the youth and I’m happy for that”, he told The New Times. Asked about how he will juggle this new responsibility and acting he said, “Combining filmmaking and health care provision is simple for me because ‘Menya Wirinde’ show is about availing sexual and reproductive health information for youth and also includes a minimum package of activities of the health centre so one is completing another”. He told The New Times that “the Menya Wirinde project is doing well so far, the latest episode, directed by Frank from Kenya talks about drug and alcohol consumption and its consequences.” The new responsibility comes with a focus on daily activities that help clinicians to improve their performances. “I’m going to focus on my daily responsibilities to uphold the trust. The challenge is having low effective workers where I have to help my clinicians with consultation, outreaches, and drug administration, Habiyambere said. Habiyambere’s journey in filmmaking and acting “My journey in film acting started in 2011 when I was trained as a peer educator by the Imbuto Foundation in Bwisige Science School, Gicumbi district,” he said. Sketch and songs were part of the training as a tool to educate youth on sexual and reproductive health and rights for youth to reduce the high level of unwanted pregnancies in high schools. His idea of the Menya Wirinde series which talks about sexual and reproductive health came about in September last year. “Basing on the pandemic I thought of the gap in accessing sexual and reproductive health for youth because they were not getting such information from health centres,” Habiyambere said. Habiyambere was one of the winners of the iAccelerator phase 3 where his project called Menya Wirinde was selected among the four projects that won the competition. He holds an advanced diploma in general nursing from UR/Byumba campus and an advanced certificate from Bwisige Science School in option of Mathematics, Chemistry and biology.
