The day was celebrated under the international theme “Time is now: Rural and Urban Activists Transforming Women’s Lives,” while locally the theme was ‘Rwandan Women at the forefront of sustainable development: Building the Rwanda We Want.’

The colorful event was attended by government officials, security personnel, religious leaders, activists and development partners who witnessed women’s aptitude after touring the exhibition center which showcased various products such as handmade clothes, water filter made from clay, electricity, biscuits made from orange potatoes, handcrafts to mention but a few.

Speaking at the event, Minister of Gender and Family Promotion; Honorable Espérance Nyirasafari who was also the Guest of Honor, commended the Rwandan government for having done a lot to ensure gender equality and promoting women and girls which enabled them to contribute to the country’s development.

 ‘Celebrating Women’s Day, is a good opportunity to hail girls and women's role in the country’s development. A sustainable development can only be achieved if men and women join hands.’ She said

Honorable Minister Nyirasafari added that Rwanda is dedicated to equality between men and women and that the country will continue supporting women and girls. Commenting on the witnessed ability of women through the exhibition, she said that it is evident that women are able and what is needed is to keep supporting them.

“We have seen that a woman can fix electricity and other things that require hands-on skills, let us keep it up and avoid intrusion’-said Honorable Nyirasafari

Among other dignitaries who spoke at the event was One UN Resident Coordinator for Rwanda Mr. Ndiaye Fode who represented development partner present yesterday. He hailed the Rwanda’s Government lead by President Paul Kagame, for having put enough efforts in bridging gender gap and women empowerment.

This year’s International Women’s Day focused on sustaining the gains in empowering women and girls through Technical Vocational Education and Training. It is in this line that, through the National Employment Program, yesterday’s celebrations featured conferring start-up toolkits to 142 women who recently graduated in Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) schools in numerous domains namely construction, plumbing, tailoring and hair dressing.

The event also coincided with rewarding 10 Best Performing Girls dubbed as ‘Inkubito z’Icyeza’ who excelled in last year’s A-Level exams. They were awarded with laptops by Imbuto Foundation and will pursue ICT training during their transition to university and higher learning institutions.

The International Women’s Day was established by the United Nations in 1972 and it is celebrated on March 8^th each year by Governments, Non-Governments organizations, charities, educational institutions, women's groups, corporations, community and media.

In Rwanda, the International Women’s Day was celebrated since 1975 with focus on identifying the role of Women in socioeconomic development of the country, their achievements, challenges met and measures to overcome them. The celebration of International Women’s Day in Rwanda is very important due to the fact that, our country has played over the World a crucial role in advancement of gender equality and women empowerment whereby Women are highly represented in different decision making positions. Some of the hindrances affecting women empowerment are gender based violence especially those against women and girls, teenage pregnancies and a low number of women who have access to finance.