Nyamirambo Women’s Center is a Rwandan NGO that was launched in late 2007 by 18 Rwandan women living near Nyamirambo in Kigali. Nyamirambo women came together and created a project that focused on addressing gender-based violence, discrimination, and gender inequality. Click here to view mountain gorilla trekking safaris 

The Nyamirambo Women Center’s mission is to promote education and vocational training for women who are unable to pay for their own training, with the aim of providing better employment opportunities for them. Click here to see our recommended mountain gorilla trekking tour.

By late 2013, Nyamirambo women's center had introduced a new product line called “Umutima,” which means “heart” in Kinyarwanda, the language of Rwanda. With the Umutima project, the Nyamirambo women's center started training and employing women from the local community in order to create a vast array of women’s accessories, home décor products, and children’s clothing. At the moment, the Nyamirambo women's center has more than 50 women employed by the Umutima project as seamstresses. The Umutima project and Nyamirambo women's center have developed a unique, self-sustaining model in which the profits earned from the Umutima project fund NWC initiatives, among others.

Nyamirambo Women's Center offers tourists a unique personal clue into the Rwandan culture, history, and daily life of the local people within the Nyamirambo community. All the tour guides at the Nyamirambo women's center grew up in Nyamirambo or live here now, and the Nyamirambo walking tour truly welcomes travelers into our homes. The profits earned from nyamirambo walking tours go back into the NWC and are used to pay seamstresses a fair wage and fund other local community initiatives, including free literacy classes, workshops on women’s rights, nutrition, and health, periodic sewing courses, library with afternoon programming for children, and English classes.

Nyamirambo walking tour

The Nyamirambo walking tour is popular for providing tourists with an on-foot experience. The tour begins at the Nyamirambo Women's Center with a traditional Rwandan snack and a first Kinyarwanda language lesson. Guides will introduce you to the Center and all of its activities. It then takes you to Nyamirambo, one of Kigali’s long-ago neighborhoods. Along the way, your guide will take you to a women's hairdressing salon where the daring can get high; they will give you a free braid; to a family compound to pound cassava leaves; to two mosques overlooking Kigali; and to the shop to look for the beautiful African fabrics being styled on the streets. The Nyamirambo walking tour ends with a traditional lunch cooked and served at the home of Aminatha, the Nyamirambo Women Center's best cook.

The Nyamirambo Women's Center gives travelers a truly unique insight into the culture, daily life in the Rwandan community, and history. Most of the tour guides either live or grew up within Nyamirambo, so the tour guides will automatically welcome tourists into their community. The profits made from the tours go back to Nyamirambo Women’s Center, and they are used to pay a fair wage and fund the local community engagement initiatives, such as free literacy classes, a library with afternoon programming for community children, English classes, periodical sewing courses, health, and workshops on women's rights and nutrition.

Walking Tour of Nyamirambo

The walking tour of Nyamirambo starts at the Women’s Center with a Rwandan traditional snack, a simple Kinyarwanda language lesson, and a brief introduction to the Center and all its activities. Then you will be taken through Nyamirambo, one of Kigali’s oldest neighborhoods.

Along the way, your tour guide will lead the participants into a women's hairdressing beautiful salon where the adventurous tourists can get a free braid, two mosques, a family compound to pound cassava leaves, and a lookout for the endless views of Kigali city. A walking tour of Nyamirambo concludes with Rwanda’s local lunch cooked and served in the home of Aminatha, NWC's best cook.

Sisal Basket Weaving Workshop

All around Rwanda, tourists can view sisal basketry products. In this unique workshop, tourists are given an opportunity to try their own basket using a sisal at the time-intensive and historically significant practice of basketry. This workshop starts with an overview of Rwanda’s cultural history of sisal, followed by an explanation of every process from harvest to final product. Participants get a needle under the guidance of an expert woman from the Nyamirambo Women’s Center; start weaving a small token of your choice to take home. Sisal basket weaving workshop comes with a local lunch cooked and served in the home of Aminatha, NWC's best cook.

Traditional Cooking Class with Aminatha

Join every step in the cooking process shared by Aminatha and participants in this particular tour. After purchasing products and ingredients from several markets, the interested group goes to the corner from the center to Aminatha's home. There tourists get to work on a wooden table in her beautiful courtyard, chopping many vegetables and setting the charcoal stoves. Under the guidance of an experienced Aminatha, six traditional, gratifying, and delicious dishes are prepared and shared amongst all involved.

Aminatha cooking classes are available in English, French, and Kinyarwanda.

Mount Kigali Adventure

Join an urban landscape to the peaceful countryside at the top of Mount Kigali. Mount Kigali enjoys a long walk of about 8.7 km that takes tourists from Nyamirambo Women's Center to the busy Nyamirambo neighborhood that connects tourists with nature while hiking the hillside. Mount Kigali Adventure is available in French, English, and Kinyarwanda. Lunch included.

The long, dry months are ideal for trekking mountain gorillas and chimpanzees since there is less mud on all the trekking trails and a lower risk of getting malaria. However, the dry season is considered the peak travel time when there is a high demand for trekking permits, so I advise tourists to book in advance.