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WHO WE ARE

iDebate Rwanda exists to turn secondary school students into Rwanda’s next thinkers, speakers, and leaders.

WHO WE ARE

iDebate Rwanda exists to turn secondary school students into Rwanda’s next thinkers, speakers, and leaders.

ONE MISSION

To build critical thinking and communication skills in Rwanda’s secondary school students so they grow into engaged, active citizens: people who question what they’re told, organize with others, and lead in their own communities. Since 2012, that mission has grown from a single idea into a nationwide network of schools, coaches, and alumni.

ONE MISSION

To build critical thinking and communication skills in Rwanda’s secondary school students so they grow into engaged, active citizens: people who question what they’re told, organize with others, and lead in their own communities. Since 2012, that mission has grown from a single idea into a nationwide network of schools, coaches, and alumni.

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YEARS OF BUILDING THINKERS NOT JUST SPEAKERS

Since 2012, we have worked with schools and communities across Rwanda to create opportunities for young people to question ideas, express their perspectives, engage with different viewpoints and develop the confidence to participate in shaping their society.

In 1994, Rwanda endured the Genocide against the Tutsi. This was made possible, in part, by a culture where disagreement was dangerous and dehumanizing ideas went unanswered.

iDebate was founded out of the conviction that this must never happen again, and that part of the answer lies in the classroom: teaching young people to question ideas, challenge each other’s thinking, and disagree without treating the person on the other side as an enemy. That conviction still separates iDebate from a typical debate program. We don’t teach debate only to build confident speakers. We teach it because a country where students learn to take apart an idea without attacking the person holding it is a country less likely to repeat its worst chapter.

OUR VALUES

01  Inclusiveness

iDebate works in public schools, private schools, government-aided schools, and international schools alike, in every province of Rwanda. Talent doesn’t check which kind of school a student is enrolled in, so neither do we. .

02 Learning Community

Nearly 90% of iDebate’s active volunteers, and about 80% of its staff, are alumni of the program. The people teaching today’s students were themselves students here. Every coach is still learning how to teach, and every program keeps improving because the people running it actually lived it. .

03 Interest of Students

When a decision comes down to what looks better for the organization versus what’s actually better for the students in it, students win. That’s why the National Debate League pulled back from 220 partner schools in 2024 to 204 in 2025. Choosing a smaller, better-supported program over a bigger number to point to.

04 Respect

Every round ends with the same rule: argue the point, not the person. The person across the table is still someone you’ll see again: win or lose and that’s treated as true for staff and coaches as much as for students in a debate.

THE FUTURE WE
The f ARE WORKING FOR

A generation of Rwandan students who go as far as their talent takes them, not just as far as their circumstances allow.

Talent exists everywhere in Rwanda, in every district, and every kind of school. Access to the people, information and opportunities that turn that talent into something real doesn’t. iDebate’s long-term vision is to close that gap: students who leave our programs with the skills and the relationships to reach a university place, a scholarship, a first job, a seat at a table they wouldn’t otherwise reach.

It’s the same conviction that started iDebate in 2012 but aimed forward now, at building what’s next, rather than only preventing what came before.

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Years of history and education

Years of history and education

Founded in 2012, out of a promise that Rwanda would not repeat its past.

In 1994, Rwanda endured the Genocide against the Tutsi. This was made possible, in part, by a culture where disagreement was dangerous and dehumanizing ideas went unanswered.

iDebate was founded in 2012 out of the conviction that this must never happen again, and that part of the answer lies in the classroom: teaching young people to question ideas, challenge each other’s thinking, and disagree without treating the person on the other side as an enemy.

That conviction still separates iDebate from a typical debate program. We don’t teach debate only to build confident speakers. We teach it because a country where students learn to take apart an idea without attacking the person holding it is a country less likely to repeat its worst chapter.

The future we are working for.

A generation of Rwandan students who go as far as their talent takes them. not just as far as their circumstances allow.

Talent exists everywhere in Rwanda, in every district, every kind of school. Access to the people, information and opportunities that turn that talent into something real doesn’t. iDebate’s long-term vision is to close that gap: students who leave our programs with the skills and the relationships to reach a university place, a scholarship, a first job, a seat at a table they wouldn’t otherwise reach.

It’s the same conviction that started iDebate in 2012 but aimed forward now, at building what’s next, rather than only preventing what came before.