Miss Rwanda 2021 Grace Ingabire has embarked on her tour in different secondary schools in the country as part of her Ndashoboye initiative, with which she will be creating Exploration clubs. The initiative, loosely translated as ‘I am able’, aims at inspiring the young generation from schools to draw inspiration from their passions, follow them and make the best out of them to find solutions that can positively impact society. The beauty queen started her tour last weekend when she visited students at Mater Dei Secondary School in Nyanza District, Southern Province. During her visit, Ingabire held an interactive session with the school’s students on discovering and exploring their passion and career. The goal of the Exploration Clubs is to expose us to adequate information and experience so that we have the tools needed to solve problems in our society, she said, tipping students on how to start pursuing their passion and create opportunities out of them towards a positive impact on their communities. Another aspect of the Exploration Clubs, is that, in exposing us to different disciplines, our minds open up. We become curious about our environment, we notice gaps. We gain the tools and motivation to come up with solutions to fill those gaps,” she added. Ingabire has been passionate about dance from a young age to the extent that she wanted to pursue dancing studies. She didn’t care about the fact that there wasnt any dance school in Rwanda, requesting her parents to help her find a school no matter where it is. They made her dream come true when they sent her to Bates College in Maine, United States, to pursue her dream career. Being passionate about dance earned Ingabire the Miss Rwanda 2021 crown, an achievement that she thinks her generation can draw inspiration from and pursue their passions at a young age. According to Ingabire, the ‘Ndashoboye’ initiative provides opportunities to interact and address various issues. She shared that she wants, from the initiative, to create a club that explores different notions and subjects and their underlying causes and what young people can learn from the same or most certainly come up with novel solutions in case the subjects being addressed need solutions. Besides Mater Dei Secondary School, Ingabire took a similar initiative to Maranyundo Girls School in Bugesera District. Overall, the 25-year-old plans to implement this type of club in one primary school and one high school in Kigali, and expand it to four more schools in and out of Kigali in order to give clubs an opportunity to reach different communities and schools. Dance studio in the pipeline Upon winning the Miss Rwanda 2021 crown, Ingabire pledged to implement a project that aims to promote dance as a learning tool that complements formal education. The New Times has learned that the beauty queen is now working on a dance studio, which she plans to launch soon. At the studio, Ingabire targets to provide dance classes, starting from virtual classes, before she embarks on physical ones once the covid-19 relaxes.
