We woke up extra early to get a head start on the day. We had a hearty breakfast then made our way to meet the teams at 8:30am. Everyone was excited to begin the week of delivering workshops.
Tensions rose as we waited for the morning students to arrive. Eventually, 46 girls from Camp Kigali Secondary School arrived, eager and looking forward to the mystery of what they had been taken out of class for. Their later-than-expected arrival meant the workshops had to be rushed before lunch, but we worked together and tried to make sure the girls got as much out of the time we could give them as possible! We began the day running the Mechanical Engineering workshop and Aerospace workshop, then managed to fit in most of the Renewable Energy Engineering workshop and Civil Engineering workshop. The good vibes and positive attitudes of the teams were really appreciated, and it was a successful morning.
After lunch, a bigger batch of students arrived. This time there were 73 girls from Lycée Notre Dame De Citeaux (LNDC). We did the usual introducing the Glasgow and Rwandan teams and quick descriptions of the different types of engineering available, and then we split into three groups. First we ran Biomedical Engineering, Software Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. We had a quick change and then ran Software Engineering again along with Renewable Energy Engineering, Water Engineering and Product Design Engineering. The students were really enthusiastic and positive. They asked lots of questions and seemed interested. The girls came up with some fantastic ideas in the design areas such as the Biomedical Engineering workshop, and were very engaged. They came up with very innovative concepts for conquering different diseases that are common in Rwanda, such as photosynthesising t-shirts and a bracelet to detect different problems. We took a lot of photos and videos of interviews, so hopefully they will be available for you to see soon!
The students left at about 4:30pm, after taking a big group photo!
We spent some time organising and tidying in preparation for tomorrow, then had an interesting selection of foods for dinner (strange supermarket choices) before having a group meeting and organising.
There is so much to look forward to this week! We are so looking forward to talking to all the different students! Over the past three days we have already managed to talk to over 200 girls, and so many have been interested to learn more and taken note of the FemEng email address.
-FemEng Team
FemEng in Rwanda 