All this week, “In A Flash” will feature images from the Kent State University group’s trip to Rwanda.
Students in Kent State’s Kigali Summer Institute in Rwanda enjoyed performances of traditional dances at the Urugo Women’s Opportunity Center. Students were also invited to perform with the dancers.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the Urugo Women’s Opportunity Center was founded by Women for Women International to create a secure environment in which vulnerable women find support, access resources, and develop life-changing skills in Rwanda. Women for Women invests in women survivors of war and conflict around the world, providing them with social and economic skills to transform their own lives.
The center provides a wide range of training to the women in Kayonza District in the sewing industry, and handmade crafting that provides them with life shaping skills for the development of their families and communities. Women can create and offer items for sale at the center.
The Urugo Women’s Opportunity Center has become a hub for women's entrepreneurship, a space of learning, a resource for the community, and a source of inspirational stories. The Center also provides tourists the opportunity to learn key components of Rwanda's rich cultural heritage while making a difference in the community.
Later, the Kent State group visited Akagera National Park, Central Africa’s largest protected wetland and the last remaining refuge for savannah-adapted species in Rwanda. The park’s features include woodland areas, swamps, low mountains and savannah. Visitors can see zebras, giraffes, buffaloes, elephants, lions, leopards, rhinos, hippos, crocodiles and hundreds of bird species.
