Jeannette Kagame, First Lady of Rwanda

Jeannette Mootingwe Kagame (Jeannette Nyiramongi, born August 10, 1962) is the wife of Paul Kagame. She became the First Lady of Rwanda when her husband took office as President in 2000. The couple have four children.

Jeannette Kagame returned to her native Rwanda following the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. She has since became involved in a variety of charitable organizations in the country, especially those benefiting widows and orphans of the Rwanda Genocide and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Jeannette Kagame, the First Lady of Rwanda and President of the Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), addresses the group in New York on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005.

Kagame hosted the first African First Ladies’ Summit on Children and HIV/AIDS Prevention in May 2001 in Kigali, Rwanda. The summit lead to the founding of the PACFA Rwanda Project (Protection and Care of Families against HIV/AIDS).

Kagame later co-founded the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) in 2002. She served as OAFLA’s president from 2004 unil 2006. OAFLA works to champion initiates related to economic empowerment, health and education throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. She also founded and chaired the Imbuto Foundation, which seeks to build on OAFLA’s achievements.

She is a patron of the Rotary Club Virunga, based in Kigali, which is working to create the first public library in Rwanda. Kagame is also a member of the board of directors for several organizations, including the Global Coalition of Women against HIV/AIDS and the Friends of the Global Fund Africa.

In October 2009, Jeannette Kagame called for Rwandans to embrace government efforts to cut the mortality rates for women and children at the launch of a polio and measles immunization campaign in Bugesera district, Eastern Province.