What a wonderful beginning of the year! gathering over 93 student leaders who are coordinating AYLF program in over 33 campuses from all the five provinces of Rwanda. It was a wonderful three days retreat from 5th-7th/01/2024 of rejuvenation, learning, growing and becoming… new friendships were built and the existing ones were strengthened.

 “Character is the foundation of trust and trust is the foundation of leadership” said Mr. Willian Kinunu-the country director of cornerstone Rwanda during his presentation as our speaker on the topic of “Character & Leadership”. what a blessing to be reminded as the next generation of leaders that “The higher we go in life, the more we should work on our character more than working on our position”… very inspiring presentation!

“Life is a dangerous river, we should learn and teach people how to swim rather than taking them out of the river”… in simple words, it's important to empower people to sustain themselves 
“When you know who is behind you, the fears of what is in front of you disappears. Once you get to know that God is for you, what is against you doesn't matter anymore"… Wow! what a transformative and impactful sharing from our second speaker Birgit Bergmann - the former MP of Germany during her sharing about the topic: “A vision for sustainable impact as a leader with influence”… she goes on emphasizing on having a vision as a leader, that vision is what build the leadership sustainability which then cause the sustainable impact in our communities.

This retreat was again a good moment for us to go through our AYLF DNA over and over again in order to keep it pure and consistent in our minds and to our people. And it was an opportunity for us to revise our national workplan for 2024 and work on the activities plan at the campus level.

We thank you very much CDA, William, Birgit Bergmann, all the AYLF team leaders and campus coordinators for your supports towards making this year's retreat successful.
We are grateful!

AYLF Leadership/Rwanda