Ni Nyampinga

Ni Nyampinga  comes in the form of a magazine and weekly radio program, but has a greater purpose: It’s an idea, an identity. 

Something that both belongs to, and is created by, Rwandan teenage girls. 

The girls themselves developed this banner in order to create a new framework for growing up in a country where girls start life on a path already determined for them—either as a child in her parents’ home or as a wife and mother in her husband’s. Learn how Rwanda’s first teen magazine is inspiring and enabling a new generation of girls.

The term “ni nyampinga” is a potent one in Rwandan culture.  It is translated as:

“A girl who is beautiful inside and out and makes good decisions”

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“I thought people would think I’m crazy to do boys’ work,” said a 14-year old reader from the hilltop village of Muramba in Rwanda’s Northern Province.

“To see others who do it makes me think I can do it too.  Talking to my friends about the magazine, we discovered we all felt the same.“

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Ni Nyampinga magazine is the most widely distributed publication in the country, reaching more than 15,000 villages. 

A team of Ni Nyampinga Girl Ambassadors hold town hall-style gatherings with girls every time an issue is published. There are 30 ambassadors, one for each of Rwanda’s districts.

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 4GGL thanks The Girl Effect for bringing this story to our attention.

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The Girl Effect is about leveraging the unique potential of adolescent girls to end poverty
for themselves, their families, their communities, their countries and the world.

Ni Nyampinga is run by Girl Hub and partners, with support from the Nike Foundation
and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

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