Nyamirambo Women’s Centre in Kigali Rwanda

Nyamirambo Women’s Centre (NWC) was founded in 2008 as a self-help group and grew quickly into a center that offers free education for women in the Nyamirambo neighborhoods. The centre in Kigali City supports women’s livelihoods while educating visitors about traditional cooking, handcraft making and many more. The Women’s Centre offers free workshops in literacy, English, basic computer skills, handicrafts and sewing, empowerment training on gender-based violence plus training on responsible community-based tourism to meet the mandate of these aims. The centre is among the tourist attractions in Rwanda mainly Kigali city.

NWC also arranges workshops on Gender Equality, Women’s rights and gender-based violence. In the year 2014, a library for the community was opened offering books in Kinyarwanda, English and French. In a move to develop income-generating activities for the center but also for the community women, the center set up a community-based tourism project specialized in offering guided cultural walks in Nyamirambo and Umutima, a latest line of household and children’s products.

Nyamirambo Women’s Centre Impact on Women

The product line of “Umutima” including housewares and children’s wear, employs women from the community, at a fair wage for the work done. The centre employs 50 women as seamstresses and women from different cooperatives in Kigali make use of their weaving skills by having contracts with Nyamirambo.

The center also offers a community walking tour and lunch to visitors. The community-based tour runs in Nyamirambo community of Kigali, offering tourists an insight into the every-day life and challenges, social events and businesses. Six local guides are employed to facilitate and organize the community tours. With this package, travelers get a nice experience as the tour benefits the women at both the centre and community at large.

The centre may be visited by travelers doing a 1 day Kigali City tour or after gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park.