Ejo! Youth Echo has organized a public speaking and exchange event that gathered youth and students from different schools in Kigali city.

CIESK, LDK, ESSI, APACE, MARTYSE, St PATRICK, EPR NYANDUNGU were the invited schools and each of them were presented by 4 participants of course with a teacher chosen by their own school administration.

During the event there were two rooms to gain the time and each room had fourteen participants, three judges and a timekeeper.

Everyone in the event was wearing a blue T shirt with Ejo! Youth Echo logo on the left of the chest while on the back were written the theme of the local public speaking and exchange says that, “Advancing our thoughts peacefully: embracing a non violence culture among youth in the Great Lakes Region”.

Each participant was given five minutes to express his/her speech while the audience also had four minutes to ask the speaker questions after the speech. “ It’s not a competition or a debate as it used to be; it is an exchange event” said Roger Niyigena the Ejo! Youth Echo coordinator.

The purpose of such an event was not to find the winner but the one with great speech than others. So every participant was given a certificate of participation. Lillian, the third chosen was invited to join Ejo! Youth Echo during the holidays. Shadia Ntwari and Ndoli Mark were promoted to present Kigali city in the Regional Public Speaking where they will meet two from Huye district and two from Rubavu district to represent Rwanda.

Students from The Great Lakes Countries like Burundi, DRC, Uganda and Rwanda are going to gather together on 11th to 15th May 2015 for the grand final (Regional Public Speaking) and six students will represent each country.