Ange Thaina Ndizeye

"Whatever you do, wherever you are, don't waste time. Learn, work, and make the effort to understand what is right and what is wrong. Do what is right, and avoid what is wrong. Keep building yourself as time goes on. This requires discipline, self-control, and a clear understanding of what you are doing. And it has to be consistent. You cannot be disciplined at night and then lose that discipline during the day. You have to keep at it. At your age, this is when your life can take one direction or another. You can come out of these years having built yourself into a better person, or the opposite. Things move very fast at this stage of life. You can either build yourself or destroy yourself. It's never too late. Even when you realise that you have lost something along the way, perhaps because you were carried away by emotions or the easy things in life, and you lost your way, whenever you come to your senses, remember that there is still time to turn things around and build a better life. Don't give up and say it is too late, that the damage has already been done. Even when things have gone too far, they can still be put right. Never give up." President Kagame | Youth #MeetThePresident

"If you are going to the beach, by the water, where people go to relax, there is a certain way you can dress and behave that may be different from other places. That is perfectly acceptable. But imagine someone coming here dressed as though they were at the beach. Would that work? Wouldn't you all turn around and wonder, what happened to this person? By the way, this is not just about women. Most of the time, these things are made to be about women, but the same applies to men. Even now, imagine we are sitting here, and a man suddenly walks in, as though he has just come from the gym, wearing shorts, with nothing on his upper body, and comes to sit among us. People would ask, what happened to this person? Did he forget where he was going? Now, if we had all agreed to come dressed that way, then perhaps that is how it would be. But some people would not come. Isn't that so? Some would simply decide not to attend, saying, we are not going to be part of that. There is a way society regulates itself, including through self-regulation. But when you simply say, we have seen this elsewhere, so let us do the same here, and you bring it into our society, society may tell you, we have not reached that point yet. Perhaps we were moving in that direction, but we are not there yet. That should not create any hostility. There should be a way of regulating these things so that people can come to an understanding. It is like a foreign body. I think those of you in the medical profession know this. When a foreign object, a fragment of something, enters the body, the body tends to reject it. It keeps pushing it out. Even when a thorn gets stuck in your skin, if you leave it there for some time, it begins to work its way out. Eventually, you find it near the surface and remove it. Society works in much the same way. A healthy society, with its own way of functioning, when something unfamiliar is introduced into it, gradually, little by little, that society begins to push it away. There is then a struggle between someone trying to change society to fit something they have brought from elsewhere, and society itself saying, do not bring these things here, and pushing that person away. But there should be no conflict. That is how these things should work. Young people like you should keep these things in mind. Think about them. Understand what it is that you want for yourselves. Even here, in our discussions, people should be able to raise these questions and say, there are things we have seen becoming increasingly accepted in our society, yet they are not part of our culture. They do not even bring us any benefit. Why should we accept them, especially when they are things that harm people? Why?" President Kagame | Youth #MeetThePresident

"What you must understand is that we could spend the whole day here talking about good things, and there should be lessons to take away from them. But learning, or having discipline, is not something anyone can force into you. No one can force you to be disciplined, but you can learn from people to be disciplined. When it comes to drugs, alcohol, marijuana, and the other substances that were mentioned, we can teach you about them. We can show you the harm they cause, their consequences, and the people whose lives have been affected. But it is when you take those lessons and reflect on them yourself that they can help you change for the better. Ultimately, it has to start with you." President Kagame | Youth #MeetThePresident