Delight Rwanda is pleased to present the activity report 2024 of the Premier Young Leaders competition on trafficking in persons. The project activity was implemented from September 2023 to June 2024 in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice and Pakistan High Commission, with funding and technical support provided. Premier Young Leaders is a five-year (5) project that aims to transform secondary school students with leadership skills, research ability, teamwork, critical thinking, decision making, researched speeches, and public speaking training with a particular focus on competition of informative speech writing, speech delivery, and panel discussions. It promotes understanding, respect, equality of opportunity, and counter trafficking in persons and professional skills and competences of young people. In keeping with the main aim, a key activity of the project was implemented in 73 secondary schools in 17 Districts from 4provinces and City of Kigali.
The Community Action Against Human Trafficking Project has been initiated to support the community in understanding the reality of human trafficking
Premier Young Leaders builds the foundations of secondary schools programmes which focus on informative public speaking. Many high schools offer the opportunity to serve in school leadership positions. These can include positions in students’ governance e.g. Class monitors, Head Boy/Girl, or school prefects. In these roles, students often serve as liaisons between other students and school management. Students must also consider a longer-term vision regarding practicing their communication and public speaking abilities as good leaders.
Delight Rwanda is implementing Human Trafficking Prevention in Secondary Schools activity with the methodology of Premier Young Leaders speech and panel discussion competition.
Many school clubs or organizations also offer students the opportunity to take on public speaking debates where they address propositions and opposition to the debated theme. Leadership is increasingly recognized as an important skill that benefits learners in school, as they transition to the workplace, and throughout their careers. Learners who have leadership experiences in secondary school are more likely to attend further or higher education, and graduate. Higher education institutions value leadership as a key outcome for graduating seniors. Employers also expect graduates to have leadership experiences, and value this skill when making hiring decisions.
Effective leadership is evident considering its demographic weight, but also because young people are increasingly educated, informed, and politically aware. Young Africans are already and can better become, in their communities, countries, and regions, actors and contributors to the culture of good leadership, understood in its broad sense as the transformation of good governance and young entrepreneurs’ voice, the improvement of good governance, socio-economic and ecological.
These activities will enhance high school students with a framework of leadership skills and values, research ability, teamwork, critical thinking, decision-making, researched public speaking, and dependability. The coordinated project technical assistance will target the long-term to ensure high-quality inputs as an integrated day-to-day work. This project is a consistently available point of contact for direct and indirect target groups, project mentors, and project stakeholders.
We hope that the inspiration and motivation gained through the training – not least the concept of inner readiness competence development – will lead to more prepared and professional trainers of Premier Young Leaders and to greater long-term impacts of leadership and counter trafficking in persons.
This project provides a detailed description of all methods and sessions led by the participants and the taskforce, including theoretical inputs that link the aims of the sessions and discussions among participants to social realities. We would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the Ministry of Education, District Directorate of Education and Secondary schools management for their hospitality and flexibility with regard to the needs, wishes and demands of the taskforce and participants; to the taskforce their thorough preparation and commitment to the project; and to all participants for an unforgettable mutual learning experience.
All speeches developed by students in competitions from school, district, provincial, and national levels will be revised (edited) and published in Premier Young Leaders Leaflets. Technically, the printed leaflet pages will contain speeches and photos of the speakers (students) to attract fellow students to read and learn about the leadership and the problem of human trafficking both globally and within their communities. We therefore focus on leadership as the process of managing or guiding the work in a transformational, inspirational, respectful, and supportive way. School-based behavior change communication interventions could help to achieve behavioral changes in the school and enhance the capacity building of the students and teachers to become good leaders in their local communities.
Various participatory, educational, and communication interventions were implemented as a pilot phase from 2019 to 2020 in 97 secondary schools to promote leadership and human trafficking preventive practices. The informative public speaking through speech delivery and panel discussions broadcasted on ISIBO TV for educational purposes to motivate other students, youth, and the community. Thus, the Young Leaders’ Champions Club in secondary schools will reinforce fellow students with leadership practices and take a big part in changing negative behavior to positive behavior.
Premier Young Leaders’ project enhances high school students with relevant knowledge about human trafficking and other issues, increasing their efficiency in preventing and suppressing human trafficking. Supporting young people with self-campaigning will increase human trafficking preventive measures and reduce the current level of human trafficking in Rwanda and globally.
