Hey You, Ready to Start Shaping Our Region?

Friendly greetings from the guy who needs your energy, brains and presence. I’m back with exciting news!

Hopefully, you and your loved ones are doing great? You might be curious about how far along we are with GHE Hubs, the physical and virtual spaces to bring together youngsters from Rwanda, Uganda and Congo? We will get to that soon, but first I need to invite you to be part of the changemakers.

On Saturday 18 June 2022, a groundbreaking event will take place in Kigali — and I bet you don’t want to miss the moment!

The first general assembly of Gorilla Highlands Experts (GHE), the Hubs’ mother organisation, will be held in Kigali and is open to everyone who wants to be part of the sweeping change we are kicking off. Do you, like so many of us, want to live in a transboundary region that is prosperous, peaceful and full of opportunities? Come and meet cool likeminded people, hear the whole story and win some bragging rights because you were there when it all started!

Just think how beautiful it would be to become part of an organisation that plans to:

1) encourage peace, security, economic and social development of the region
(2) project a positive, unified image of the region that transcends national borders
(3) strengthen livelihoods and cultural self-respect of Indigenous peoples
(4) help find a sustainable global way of living

It’s remarkable, right? WhatsApp or call me on +250 728 588 396 by Wednesday 16/6/22 and I will get you all the details.

Changemaker, Meet the Changes!

All the vital GHE ingredients will certainly carry over into the upcoming development work of our Hubs. You have possibly learned about the Hubs before, in my March article? Do you remember that it was supposed to have started already, with a May kickoff?

When I arrived in Musanze in the first week of the past month, I knew that I wanted to live there and enjoy the legendary local chill at Miha‘s house! I planned to have many meetings and connect with energetic new people, jog every evening on Musanze’s quiet roads and assume the central role in driving changes to this new community I found myself in!

Ambitious, right?

The delightful valley town of Musanze, built on volcanic rocks, welcomed me well. I got a chance to meet my high school classmates again who are pursuing their studies at INES Ruhengeri — the school that will be the epicentre of the Hubs. I started to feel as though I was already a permanent employee who had been sent to work in Rwanda’s northern province. I was developing project activity plans and budgets during the day and chatting with our target audience (my buddies) or little Lan during the evenings. I learned from, and was inspired by, the insightful nonprofit fundraising course that Miha arranged for me. I was growing daily, and so was the Hubs concept.

But then I received a call that made me question my future with the project. My mom was urging me to come back to Nyamagabe to take care of some responsibilities to do with my family’s loan repayments. I explained my dilemma to Miha with curiosity and worry. He asked me many questions and then informed me that there would be no Hubs without me.

This meant that I should find every way to make our dreams come true! I did have to leave Musanze, but I’m still with GHE and still ready to spearhead our physical activities in September 2022.

September is best for us because we will be targeting the new students joining INES and other nearby educational institutions. It will be exciting to welcome the newcomers from all over Africa to our Musanze community! From the updated concept paper, you can see how we are moving towards different major milestones of this youth-led and youth-serving project.

With GHE and GHE Hubs, we, the future young leaders, entrepreneurs and farmers, can start shaping the desirable region we want! Will you jump in along with us?

UPDATE, December 2022: The GHE Hubs project is now called Youth Spaces and commences in 2023.