Rwanda’s First Lady, Her Excellency, Jeannette Kagame, has been awarded the African Achievers Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award 2013 for her philanthropic work through the Imbuto Foundation.

Presenting the award to the Rwanda High Commissioner to UK, the Foundation’s founder and CEO, Mr David Ndiwanyu, hailed Rwanda’s First Lady for her excellent work in women empowerment in Rwanda and the continent. Out of 2000 entries this year, the AFIA panel of judges had determined that Mrs Kagame deserved the honor of a Lifetime Achievement Award, he said.

Receiving the award on behalf of the First Lady at the Rwanda Mission offices in London, on November 6th, Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Williams Nkurunziza, thanked AfIA for the honor and noted: "The First Lady, H.E. Jeannette Kagame is a most deserving winner of this award. She has been and remains a passionate champion of women’s empowerment and girls’ education through the work of the ’Imbuto Foundation’. She continues to sow seeds of hope by encouraging young women and girls to believe in themselves and work to better themselves, their communities and country."

This is the eighth edition of the African Achievers International Awards (AfIA). Over 20 other organisations and individuals were honored for their selfless services to their communities during this year’s award. The First Lady had been shortlisted in four of these awards and walked away with the highest of them all.