Paper Crown Rwanda is a feminist, non-profit organization in Rwanda, that works with youth to transform gender norms, foster leadership and create lasting social change.

We work directly with adolescent girls and boys to break the intergenerational cycle of gender discrimination and violence, and spark the process of meaningful social change.

Our Vision:

We’re working tirelessly towards a world in which the beliefs and attitudes that enable gender discrimination and violence are permanently transformed for the better.

Our Mission:

We’ll achieve this vision by equipping adolescents, especially girls, to be vocal community activists through participatory, transformative workshops and clubs, so they are empowered to challenge gender norms and break the intergenerational cycle of discrimination and violence.

“Change a heart, change a mind,
change the world.”

Our Founding Story

Paper Crown was founded by gender and development specialist Katie Carlson, a Canadian feminist activist and resident of Rwanda since 2012. Throughout her time spent living and working in the country, Katie was continually inspired by the stories of Rwanda’s girls and young women, who persistently struggled with issues of discrimination and violence despite the strong leadership and political will shown across the country’s government to create a more gender equal society in Rwanda. After piloting a series of participatory workshops with adolescent girls that directly called out the gender issues permeating their daily lives and empowered girls to know their rights and believe in themselves, Katie realized there was tremendous potential to break the intergenerational cycle of gender inequality and violence by spending meaningful time with young people and changing hearts and minds for the better - through feminist critical thinking and the development of strong personal self-confidence and leadership skills that would lead to community advocacy and transformative gender norms change.

After running numerous capacity building projects to this effect since 2014, Paper Crown began engaging boys in 2017, to further tackle the problem of gender inequality and the mindsets that perpetuate it.