Rwanda Girls Initiative

Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology (GAST) is a government-aided, all-girls boarding school located one hour south of Kigali, Rwanda. We enroll 270 girls in the last three years of secondary school, equivalent to grades 10-12.

Given that as recently as 2008 only 17% of Rwanda’s girls were attending secondary school, the school aims to promote the social justice mission of gender equity in educational opportunities and by so doing to foster the more rapid and more sustainable national economic development that results from investing in young women. GGAST has enrolled the most talented girls in Rwanda.

For the Class of 2015 the median score on the O Level National Examinations was 13 (8 is the best possible mark and 72 the lowest). Given the tragedy of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the co-founders believes that Rwanda would be best served by as socio-economically diverse a student body as possible. Students come from 27 of Rwanda’s 30 Districts.

Families pay fees “according to their ability to pay.” Only 20% of families pay the full annual fees of approximately USD$2,000, 25% pay USD$215 or less, and 10% pay as little as USD$87 per year.