Throwback to when Noelia López, our Project Coordinator, was invited to present the ANSWER project as a successful case at the Erasmus+ 2025 Annual Information Day for Higher Education Conference, organized by the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE), which took place last December in Madrid.

At this prestigious Spanish conference, she explained the results achieved so far in Rwanda from the ANSWER project, as outlined in the project’s Interim Report (from March 1, 2023, to August 31, 2024). Among other results, the following were achieved:

• Organizing a Dissemination Event to present the project, attended by 181 people.
• Adaptation and contextualization of best practices in the field of inclusion, accessibility, and disability, identified during EU Study Visits, to the local context by Rwanda partners.
• Organizing a National Conference, attended by 81 people.
• Increasing knowledge on disability inclusion through the capacity-building blended training.
• The signature of Memorandum of Understandings between partner universities and Rwandan organizations, including our partner NGO UWEZO Youth Empowerment.
• Modernization and consolidation of the Students with Disability Support Centres at each partner HEI (UR, INES, & EAUR).
• UWEZO Youth Empowerment, at the main Hall of INES Ruhengeri, delivered a public talk on disability, accessibility, and inclusion to over 200 students and university staff at INES Ruhengeri.
• The formal establishment of the multi-stakeholder working group.
• UWEZO Youth Empowerment reached out to 7 institutions requesting possible collaborations in the area of internship provision for SWDs.

Thus, the current impact, among many others, includes:

• More than 100 people with disabilities were reached.
• Significant upgrades in campus infrastructure to better accommodate SWDs.
• Improvement in teaching practices, as well as impact on administrative staff.
• Revision of HEIs’ policies on inclusion.
• Inclusive curriculum delivery and assessment methods across all university academic programs.
• Reaching a total of 961 students and 254 university staff.
• Training a total of 166 people in the fields of disability, inclusion, and accessibility.
• Of the above, 35 people not enrolled in HEIs, 20 university staff, and 6 members of the Ministry of Education of Rwanda were trained.
• 37 students with disabilities have contacted UWEZO asking for internship support.

For those interested in learning more about this impressive presentation, we invite you to watch the recording, available on YouTube from hour 6:26:00 to 6:53:00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgSViSAeD3k&t=361s

Stay tuned for future updates on the ANSWER project as we continue promoting the inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education in Rwanda!