Joss Divin Ndikubwayo – ARAME Co-Founder, Rwanda

Joss Divin Ndikubwayo, co-founder of ARAME, tells us about his work in creating empowerment opportunities for young girls and women and the programs he is designing to move things forward in terms of solving the gender skills gap. He considers himself a continuous learner and pro-inclusion enthusiast.

Joss believes that leaders of today need to redefine leadership as the collective participation of every stakeholder, therefore nurturing the sense of “we are all leaders’’ in order to provide communities with a sense of ownership of their challenges while offering support.

Can you briefly introduce yourself? 

Born to a wonderful single mother and being a refugee today from Burundi, but currently based in Rwanda, I would say I have had my first-hand experience with stigma and also being looked down on because of the different cultural norms and limiting beliefs that are labelled with my background and social status. Surprisingly, despite not being accepted within some of the communities that were attached to my roots, I found my tribe where I never expected and felt more welcomed and worthy, and this is why inclusivity, gender equity and community building are values that I hold close to my heart. Today, my host country Rwanda has made me not only feel safe but also provided me with rights and freedom as its citizen, as well as opportunities to learn and grow both at a personal and professional level. I am also part of different global networks that not only believed in me but also sparked some light that I never thought I had in me and rebuilt confidence in me to take part in solving some of the great challenges on the globe.

I consider myself a continuous learner and pro-inclusion enthusiast. Over the last decade, my work has been around creating empowerment opportunities mostly for young girls and women, as well as building communities that avail safe and brave spaces for people and enable them to have full agency of their lives. Within the last five years, I have been focusing mainly on designing programs for young girls contributing to solving the gender skills gap that is fueled by cultural role assignment limitations, and offering coaching and mentorship that will enable them to redefine the existing narrative that could hold them back from attaining their full potential. Alongside working with other established organisations and with colleagues passionate about health, we have founded together an organisation named Arame that aims at fighting teenage pregnancy through the provision of sexual and reproductive health education (SHRE) through entertainment and arts.

What does ARAME do? 

My work is mainly around women empowerment and community building. We started with the aim of fighting teenage pregnancy through the provision of sexual and reproductive health education (SHRE) through entertainment and arts and supporting teen mothers. Now our mission has expanded and we are currently working on programs that will enable teen mothers to rebuild their lives both mentally and financially. Changing the perception that society has towards these women isn’t something we have control over at all, but we believe that if we empower them to take ownership and agency of the situation, equip them with both soft and hard skills, they can redefine the narrative around them and become best agents of ARAME in combating the main pressing  issue.

Can you tell us about the work you and your team have been doing to help young mothers cope during the pandemic? 

During the Covid times, alongside working on ARAME and supporting teen mothers, I had the chance to work as a trainer with the SEE Change program that is housed by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whereby we were training women with key responsibilities in shaping the energy sector in Rwanda. I also got the chance to serve as the Chairperson of the Mastercard Foundation Alumni Network’s founding committee in Rwanda, helping them to establish the foundation of this network, and one of my key responsibilities was to make sure gender inclusion was present in all settings and approaches. One of the opportunities and learnings from the Covid-19 events is that we didn’t have to be loud about the underrepresentation of girls and women; the pandemic displayed all these inequalities and validated our advocacy. Therefore, I took advantage of these events to push as many agendas as possible that will enable us to bridge as many gender inequalities as possible, such as women in leadership and their exposure and access to capacity building opportunities like leveraging on technology.

What would you say is the importance of leadership and values?

I personally like to connect leadership and empathy, which I believe is essential in building a mindset that puts those who are leading at the epicentre of decision making and setting the foundation for ethical leadership. The most important task that leaders of today have is to redefine leadership as the collective participation of every stakeholder, by sensitising the value of everyone’s input and building a sense of ownership. Nurturing the sense of “we are all leaders’’ is what we need today for our communities to have a sense of ownership of the challenges and for leaders to understand where exactly to offer their support. With the limited resources of both financial and human capital, we cannot depend on the idea of waiting for solutions that are coming from high echelons or outsiders anymore; with a sense of ownership, communities can take initiatives and leaders will know where to allocate the limited resources efficiently.