Empowered, ambitious, and brave, Educate! graduate Abigail Chepkwurui is making waves for gender equity and driving change in her community.

"I have to become a Member of Parliament." For Abigail Chepkwurui, a twenty-year-old Educate! graduate from Eastern Uganda, this is a goal she's been actively working toward since before joining Educate!. "I'll campaign for 2026."

Abigail is an activist, a community mobilizer, an entrepreneur, and an Educate! Mentor. More than that, she is a young woman who overcame every obstacle in her path–poverty, familial and cultural expectations, gender norms, and access to education–to discover her voice and create the future she imagined for herself.

Currently, 90% of African youth are projected to work in the informal sector. While previously many advocated to transition youth from informal contexts to formal jobs, Making Cents International's recent Global Youth Economic Opportunities (GYEO) Summit revealed a shift in thinking that closely aligns with our belief in creating a grassroots movement of young leaders and entrepreneurs to drive sustainable development. Summit participants explored the "future of work," particularly for youth in developing contexts, grappling with the same issue that has engaged us from the beginning: the mismatch between education and life after school. 

In a rural community in Eastern Uganda, twins Shadia and Shakira somehow find the time to run their own businesses, serve as the Secretary and Treasurer of their Student Business Club, and excel in their courses at Nakalama Secondary School. 

It's no secret: Girls around the world face unique and greater barriers to success after school as entrepreneurs, in the workforce, and as leaders in their communities. 

While significant progress has been made for girls' education around the world, our partner and friend Dana Schmidt of Echidna Giving notes in the Stanford Social Innovation Review that efforts to unlock the full promise of young women through quality education continue to fall short. It's not enough to focus on educating girls, we need to improve how we focus on them. In order to do so 

Educate!'s Executive Director Boris Bulayev and Rwanda Country Director Donnalee Donaldson recently presented Educate!'s experience as part of a webinar hosted by Making Cents International and the Youth Employment Funders Group (YEFG). The expert panel was moderated by USAID's Senior Youth and Workforce Advisor, Nancy Taggart, and examined how soft skills learning can be effectively integrated within formal education systems as a way to achieve larger-scale shifts in youth soft skills acquisition. 

Juliet, an Educate! Youth Leader, is one of the people at the heart of Educate!'s partnership with the Rwandan government. She, along with ten other Youth Leaders, is helping to fulfill Educate!'s vision of integrating our model into national education systems.