Impanuro Girls Initiative: Unleashing the power within girls
/ Niyohoza Providence, Rightholder
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TYPE OF GRANT:
Laboratory -
FUNDING PERIOD:
2025-2026 -
GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS:
Rwanda
Problem
Rwanda continues to face interconnected challenges affecting girls and young women, especially in adolescent sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence (GBV), education, and financial literacy. In 2022, 33,423 teenage pregnancies were recorded nationwide. According to the Multidimensional Poverty Index published by UNDP 48.8% of Rwandans are multidimensionally poor. Women face gender-based power imbalances both within households and the wider community restricting their access to resources, opportunities, and participation in decision-making. Among women aged 15-49, 37% have experienced physical violence at some point since the age of 15 and 23% have experienced sexual violence.
Solution
Impanuro Girls Initiative (IGI) supports vulnerable young women aged 10 to 24, including teen mothers, in- and out-of-school girls, and parents. IGI’s holistic approach breaks the cycle of vulnerability by using participatory and evidence-based methods that create lasting impact on adolescent girls and young women with Sexual Reproductive Health (SRHR) as the entry point to broader support:
- Health Promotion: Expanding access to SRH services and information to help girls make informed health decisions.
- Economic Empowerment and Leadership: Offering economic opportunities and leadership training to foster independence and community participation.
- Education: Strengthening academic support through targeted interventions and capacity building to improve educational outcomes.
So far, IGI has reached more than 13,000 right holders.
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45%of adolescent and young women have access to SRHR services
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95%of girls and young women stayed in school
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25.3%of participants have successful businesses
About the organization
Impanuro Girls Initiative (IGI) is a young women led national non-governmental organisation legally registered and authorised to operate in Rwanda. As a nonprofit organisation, IGI fosters women empowerment and builds girls agency with a registration number of N° 763/RGB/NGO/LP/11/2021 issued by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB).
Impanuro Girls Initiative (IGI) was founded in 2017 and has reached more than 13,000 right holders in all their diversity (with disabilities, rural area, orphans, from low-income background, teen mothers and with HIV+) in Nyarugenge, Kirehe, Gasabo, Bugesera and Ruhango Districts of Rwanda. They aim to expand their work in different areas of the country and beyond to better improve young women and girls' lives using the intersectional lenses.
