Erbil, KRI (November 26, 2021) – Rwanga Foundation held the final ceremony for the Rwanga Leadership Program where three voluntary groups were selected and received a grant of $1,500 each to implement their project ideas.

The application for the program was announced in July 21^st, 2021. By the due date for applications, 334 applications were received from Erbil, Sulaimani, Duhok, and Halabja city. Only 24 (13 Female and 11 Male) candidates were selected as final participants of the program based on the criteria of the project and the interviews held.

The project offered a set of offline trainings and online sessions to the participants, the first offline training about ‘Leadership’ started in Sep 12^th in Erbil . the activities then continued through online sessions about the topics of ‘Needs Assessment and Reporting’. After the online sessions, the participants started to do an assessment and write an assessment report until Oct 15th, 2021.

The second offline training about ‘Project Management was held in October in Sulaimani, after which the participants designed a voluntary project idea including the concept note, timeline, work breakdown structure, and budgeting and submitted it to Rwanga Foundation to be evaluated by an evaluation committee through the final ceremony of the project. During the ceremony, the three best projects will be selected to receive a grant of $1500 to implement their projects. The evaluation committee consisted of:

-        Dr. Rebean Al – Silefanee (Acting Director of UKH Creativity & Entrepreneurship Centre (CEC)

-        Khalat Ahmed (Director of Operations and Finance Department at Rwanga Foundation)

-        Kamiran Shvan (Program Development Specialist at Rwanga Foundation)

Throughout the ceremony, three projects pitched by three groups were selected as winners:

1.      ‘Distribute Emergency Kit Boxes to Public Schools in Sulaimani’ by ‘Care for You’ group

Care for You aims to provide 20 emergency boxes for public schools to educate students within the age range (12-18) to use safety tools and sanitary products, particularly for female students aged (13-15), additionally give first aid training to students and school staff in Sulaimani.

2.      ‘Let’s Protect Our Environment by Increasing the Green Area in Erbil’ by ‘Havra’ group.

Havra group aims to increase the number of trees in Erbil, specifically in Zerin City which is located on Massif Road. They will be planting 340 Brachychiton trees, one tree for each house.

3.      ‘Building Skills through Emotional Intelligence’ by ‘Step-Up’ group

To empower 50 senior students to find their goals, pathways and increase their social and emotional skills in order to prepare them for post-graduation life in Duhok. The group will deliver trainings to 50 students over the course of two days.

Rwanga Leadership Program was a long-term transformative youth program to empower active youths to become change-makers, leaders, and drivers of sustainable development and social change. The program leveled up the capabilities of 24 youths (13 Females and 11 Males) to nurture their creativity, strengthen their leadership and gain management skills to become future leaders and help them discover their ideas to improve their communities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.