On November 7, the Executive Director Of Rwanda we want organization, Colbert Rulinda hosted Arnaud Rwabahizi whose project “Hawkers@work” had just won the 4th edition of Rwanda we want’s Public Speaking competition, for a brief talk about the way forward and also to award him the grand prize of the competition.
His idea -Hawkers@work- is an app that would allow street vendors to market and sell their goods online without having to walk distances to find customers.
Additionally, the app was suggested as a rescue mission to those vendors as they were the most hit during COVID-19 times, for survival odds were less to none as they had no savings that would carry them through the lockdowns and limited allowed services functioning, all in a bid to curb the spread of the pandemic.
Hawkers@work will also be operating legally and also help the vendors to cut the losses as they will be benefiting for a bigger market with just a few clicks or swipes on mobile phones.
This year’s PSC edition distinct from the previous three editions
With the focus on problems caused or exacerbated by Covid-19, this edition of the public speaking competition was the first of its kind as it was held virtually on all RWW social media platforms-to adhere to measures put in place by health officials to curb the spread of the pandemic-and open to more youth.
That approach is different from the previous years’, for it was conducted with a physical audience with only RWW beneficiaries (secondary school students) as the participants.
Lasting a whole month, the competition-whose main theme is “My community, my concern, my solution” was carried out in two rounds namely the pre-selection round and the final round. and every youth between 16-25 years of age and residing in Rwanda was allowed to participate in the competition.
During the pre-selection round, the participants sent in their written essays describing the problem caused or exacerbated by Covid-19 within their respective community as well as the proposed solutions.
From all the participants, only 5 finalists were selected basing on how well their idea was structured and how relevant was the challenge and how suitable is the respective solution. The 5 finalists were Willine Ikirezi 20, Arnaud Rwabahizi 22, Bruno Shema 24, Nelly Kigenza 17 and Brenda Umutoniwase Keza 20.
In the final round, RWW’s communication team took videos of them presenting and explaining their ideas in form of public speaking.
These videos were posted on RWW social media platforms for voting where the public accounted for 50% of the vote and the panel of judges namely Benjamin Binamungu (Board member at Rwanda we want organization), Laurence Rwema (Co-founder at Uzi Collections) and Serge Gasore (Founder of Gasore Serge Foundation) accounted for the remaining 50% of the vote.
The judges awarded marks basing on the presentation skills, urgency and complexity of the problem, as well as the authenticity and practicability of the idea.