Akilah Experience

We were lucky enough to book our Akilah tour on Umuganda, the national cleaning day. Working side-by-side set the tone. We were immediately joking, talking about dreams (One of our hostesses, Devine, had just launched her own business, and two in our group have start-up ambitions), and when we set off to tour the bustling neighborhood of Nyamirambo, it felt like we were already old friends. Nyamirambo was full of color, sound, twisting alleys adorned with graffiti, and fabulous street food. My only regret is snacking so much before Devine invited us into her home to have lunch with her family. They were consummate hosts, and there is nothing like a home cooked meal after being on the road. We ended the afternoon with a tour of Akilah's campus, where we gabbed about entrepreneurship, innovation, tech trends and our hopes & fears regarding social impact work. Finding kindred spirits when traveling is a little bit like magic. Big thanks to Akilah, for bringing everyone together.

I had a wonderful guided walk by Akilah students through Nyamirambo and would highly recommend this local experience with Akilah Tours!

The Akilah Adventures tour was an amazing experience!! I participated in the half-day walking tour that is led by a current Akilah student who is pursuing a degree in Entrepreneurship -- I personally loved this aspect of the tour because you get to learn about the Akilah Campus and the local area of Kigali from a students perspective. Our tour started at Davis College - Akilah Campus, where we got to meet with current students and Akilah alumni, and have a private tour of the campus. Then we walked through the streets of the lively and historic neighborhood of Nyamirambo and stopped at an authentic Rwandan milk bar and the local women's center. We then ended the tour at the Camp Kigali memorial. I would definitely recommend this tour (or the full day tour if time allows)! It was a great way to learn about Rwanda, and more specifically Kigali and Akilah, through the perspective of a local Rwandan. Plus, the Akilah Adventure staff is awesome! They are very accommodating, reliable, and friendly!

I had the privilege of participating in a tour and meetings with the faculty and students of the Akilah Institute. The Akilah Institute is an all-girls university in Kigali founded in 2010 by American Elizabeth Dearborn-Hughes that provides young women with the opportunity to study business/entrepreneurship, IT, or hospitality. My tour guide was Divine Uwase, a second-year student who had already started her own tour outfit, “Sharama Tours”, and secured funding from people who believed in her unique approach to tourism, openness to feedback and sheer intellectual horsepower/gumption. She introduced me to other fantastic faculty across all of the disciplines and I learned a ton about how they get their students job offers, pursue social impact, and foster entrepreneurial spirit. I could go on and on about how great the visit was. Thank you so much!

I booked this tour on a Sunday which was worthless, because the whole camp was closed; therefore nothing to see. Therefore we had time to visit a blegium memorial and a small tour by car. In the confirmation was written "including" lunch, but that I had to pay by myself. At the end it was ok, because the young guide was very friendly, tried to do her best and the agency offered an other visit by e-mail later.