Article by Emily Zhu, intern with the U.S. Department of State, currently studying Psychology and Political Science at the University of Michigan.
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Innovator and AWE alumna Umunyana Marie Chantal
A digital enthusiast, Chantal is an alumna of the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), a women’s empowerment program run by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Launched in 2019, AWE has helped more than 16,000 enterprising women in 80 countries, empowering them with the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch and scale successful businesses.
Chantal is one of those women. She said it was the AWE program that helped her to launch her telehealth platform Umubyeyi Elevate Ltd. as a way to make essential health information available to women and families that need it.
“AWE is a really good program for women in different areas, and it has empowered us in so many ways,” said Chantal. “One thing that I appreciate most is that AWE not only believes in already-existing businesses, but also supports the ideas to get new businesses off the ground.”
Currently a medical student in Rwanda, Chantal says she got the idea for Umubyeyi Elevate from personal experience. “As a young girl, I noticed that my mother was sickly whenever she was expectant with my siblings,” says Chantal. “I longed for someone to hold her hand and walk her through the nine-month journey... I did not know then how this experience would later shape my outlook on maternal health, but it is the major reason I dreamed of becoming a doctor.” And when she herself got pregnant, she found she had nowhere to go to get information about what to expect when you are expecting.
Women’s health professionals speaking to a crowd of women at the March 2022 launch of TheBeSpace in Kigali.
According to the World Health Organization, maternal mortality rates in Rwanda are relatively high at 1300 women per 100,000 births - which is more than three times the global average. Getting proper information about childbirth can help lead to healthier moms and babies. But with only six doctors per 1,000 people, access to health care in Rwanda is scarce and women have few sources to get reliable information about the healthcare they need while pregnant.
But while there are few doctors, nearly everyone has a phone. So Chantal designed a business to help women get the info they need, at the touch of a button.
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Umunyana Marie Chantal listens to women’s stories of motherhood at the March 2022 launch of TheBeSpace for women in Kigali
The AWE program helped her business dream to come alive. Despite her medical knowledge, she knew nothing about starting a business. AWE taught her how to make a business plan to shift her passion into action. She learned how to use social media and other digital marketing techniques to advertise her start-up, and called it Umubyeyi Elevate - which means motherhood in the local Kinyarwanda language. The guidance and mentorship she got through AWE gave her the confidence to use skills in practical ways, like applying for seed funding from local sources.
In 2021, Chantal was awarded the Young Entrepreneur Resilience Fund by the Rwandan Ministry of Youth and Culture as well as the Africa Young Innovators for Health Award. She used these funds to design her website and create social media content and digital advertising for Umubyeyi Elevate. She hired a team to develop media content to better fit people’s needs, and collaborate with medical professionals who can share their knowledge with the public.
Umunyana Marie Chantal (bottom left) with her content development team.
But the visibility she got through participating in the AWE program also gave her a real boost. “People approached me after seeing my story on social media,” she said. “Being highlighted by the U.S. embassy means that the entrepreneur is doing something important to the community.”
Chantal is constantly innovating her business design to offer new services to meet growing demand. In March 2022, Chantal and the team are launching the safe space “TheBeSpace,” a digital live event with health care professionals designed to break common myths around pregnancy that lead to health problems. In the future, she hopes to start a subscription program to support the business.
By using technology to give women access to essential maternal health information, Chantal is helping to prevent life-threatening health risks for women and children, and making her community stronger at the same time. When asked how she would like her business to grow, she envisions continent wide access to good health care.
Umunyana Marie Chantal (center) with her technical team
“I really want this to be a big thing,” says Chantal. “My wish is to have attainable maternal health and parental education where everyone is free to come and learn and receive information as he or she really needs - not just in Rwanda, but in other African countries as well.”
