Over 300 Rwandans and friends of Rwanda gathered in Örebro, Sweden, to celebrate International Women's Day — an event hosted by youth leaders and filled with panel discussions, cultural performances, and a shared celebration of how good leadership has advanced women's lives in Rwanda. Across the Øresund, and Oslo, RCAs Denmark and Norway also marked the day with their own commemorations.

The conversations in Örebro were wide-ranging — from celebrating the progress Rwanda has made on gender equality, to charting strategies for strengthening community life in the diaspora and keeping the momentum moving forward.

"There is nothing like being Rwandan and carrying Rwanda within us everywhere we are in the world — so that young people can carry Rwanda within them as they grow."— First Counsellor Geraldine Umutesi

First Counsellor Geraldine Umutesi thanked the Rwandan community in Sweden for keeping Rwanda alive in their hearts — through unity, through language, and through the deliberate work of raising children who know where they come from.

Anna Agaba, Chairperson of the Association of Rwandan Women Living in Sweden (RWAS), praised the unity and solidarity that define the community in Sweden. She reserved particular gratitude for parents who pass on love of Rwanda through culture and language, and for the teachers and coaches who run the cultural school, teaching children traditional dance and Kinyarwanda, the threads that keep identity intact across generations.

Madam Rubagumya Clothilde, President of the Rwandan Community and Friends Living in Sweden, closed with an encouragement to keep working together — channelling the spirit of the day into concrete initiatives that contribute to Rwanda's development, near and far.