A few days ago I asked a few NYOTA women the following question: “When women want to be leaders, what barriers do they face? How does NYOTA help?”
Cleménce, a 2025 NYOTA graduate, wrote back, “When women want to be leaders, especially in Africa, they first face cultural challenges where women are not allowed to speak in front of men or make decisions.”
Her answer, and the answers of a few other women, are the reason NYOTA exists. Two challenges came up again and again.
Rachel and Vivine at breakfast.
Challenge 1: Believing you’re allowed to lead. Across eastern DRC, women are discouraged from speaking up in mixed company, let alone making decisions that affect their families. Wivine, from the 2024 NYOTA cohort, added, “[There is] a mix of systemic, cultural and personal barriers,” biases that women absorb, beginning in childhood.
For Rachel, a hospital psychologist, that bias fueled self-doubt. “I face constant resistance from my colleagues. I had decided to resign.” NYOTA’s Women and Leadership and Communication and Advocacy modules helped her separate her worth from other people’s reactions to her leadership efforts. She explained, “I decided not to resign…and learned to present my work with confidence.”
Challenge 2: Finding time and support to keep leading. Confidence isn’t the only missing piece. Cleménce pointed to the fact that women are solely responsible to run the household and care for children in addition to their work outside of the home. “Through NYOTA,” she told me, “we’ve learned how to balance family and work life; this has helped us plan our day effectively.”
Wivine added that women lose out on support outside the family that men in leadership enjoy. She specifically mentioned “sponsorship, mentoring and network” as missing support structures.
Two challenges. Four modules. One program. The NYOTA Leadership Development program is built around what women in Beni tell us they are facing.
Cleménce, Wivine, and Rachel are proof that NYOTA works. Cleménce doesn’t just name the barrier. She now balances what used to feel unmanageable. Wivine names the doors that are traditionally closed to women. Women in Beni are beginning to pry them open. And Rachel didn’t resign. She stayed, and now presents her work with confidence. These changes, multiplied across dozens of women in each cohort, are what your support makes possible.
So, with this in mind—
- Would you consider a gift that helps a woman in Beni access all six NYOTA modules?
- Could your monthly giving be the “sponsor” Wivine says too many women go without?
Every gift to Impact Now provides the instruction, experience, scaffolding, and encouragement for women to step into the leadership roles to which they have been called.
CAPTION FOR FEATURED IMAGE AT TOP: From left to right: Cleménce, Wivine, Rachel.
WHEN ONE WOMAN’S LEADERSHIP MULTIPLIES
Adelphine facilitating a session.
Before joining NYOTA, Kavugho Mavweko Nana had spent twelve years advocating for survivors of gender-based violence. She worked with survivors one at a time, through referral and follow-up. What she didn’t yet have was structure.
She had been responding to cases one by one as abuse survivors came to her.
As a result of her experience in the Project Management module, Nana has created a capacity-building program with a different goal. She now implements a program for 100 women, ages 18 to 25, that equips them with the skills to protect themselves and each other before a crisis hits. Instead of helping one woman at a time, Nana is able to make a collective impact.
She’s aiming higher than before and facilitating transformation at scale.
As Nana puts it: “I am convinced that, together, we can make a difference.” NYOTA gave her the tools. She’s the one multiplying them.