OUR STORY · HENA BASODA RWAMIHIGO
Before Becoming Her, there was a girl becoming herself.
My name is Hena Basoda Rwamihigo, founder of Becoming Her.
01 — CANADA
My story did not begin in Liberia.
It began years earlier, with a little Congolese girl arriving in Canada at seven years old. I came from a world where community was everything. Family was everywhere. There was familiarity in the people around me in the way we loved, gathered, celebrated, spoke, laughed and cared for one another.
Then my world changed. Growing up in Canada opened doors for me, but it also introduced me to questions about identity that I had never needed to ask before.
Where do I belong?
At school, I was often one of the only Black girls. I began navigating spaces where very few people looked like me. The images of beauty, success, professionalism and possibility around me did not always reflect the women I knew at home.
I had an incredible mother whose presence, love and example were more than enough. But outside of home, I still longed for representation. I wanted to see women who looked like me doing the things I dreamed of doing. I wanted examples. I wanted possibility to have a face.
I didn’t have the words for it then. I was simply becoming.
02 — TORONTO
Then I found the rooms I had been looking for.
Years later, my world expanded again when I went to university in Toronto. Toronto introduced me to something younger Hena had rarely experienced: rooms filled with Black women who were ambitious, educated, confident and pursuing extraordinary things.
Through spaces such as Black Future Lawyers, I encountered Black women interested in law and professional careers women whose ambitions reflected possibilities I had carried quietly within myself.
For the first time, I wasn’t only imagining what was possible. I could see it. I could talk to it. I could sit beside it. I could learn from it.
Representation did not give me my dreams. It gave my dreams a reflection. And eventually, I started wondering: What happens when more young women are given rooms like this?
03 — LIBERIA
Then came Liberia.
Years after that seven-year-old girl arrived in Canada, I travelled to Liberia for an international youth internship. And once again, I found myself thinking about young women.
Research continues to identify barriers affecting girls and young women unequal educational opportunities, gender-based violence, early pregnancy, economic barriers and limited opportunities for meaningful participation and leadership. But those statistics were never the whole story I saw.
I saw intelligence. I saw ambition. I saw creativity. I saw young women with questions. I saw young women who wanted opportunities to learn, connect and grow.
And I kept thinking about the rooms that had changed me. The rooms where seeing another Black woman succeed made me think: Maybe I can too. So I decided to create one.
LIBERIAN AIRPORT
ME AND IYIP INTERNS
04 — A ROOM OF HER OWN
And Becoming Her was born.
Becoming Her became a six-week leadership, mentorship and personal-development passion project for young women ages 15–25 in Liberia. But I did not create Becoming Her because I believed these young women needed someone to teach them how to become powerful. They already were.
I wanted to create a space where they could recognize it. A room where young women could talk openly about identity, confidence, leadership, purpose, professionalism, dreams, fear, failure, success and the complicated journey of figuring out who you are becoming.
“I’ve been where you are.” “I’m not figuring this out alone.” “There is room for me there too.”
I thought I was creating the room for them. They changed the room for me too.
Becoming Her reminded me that mentorship is not about one person having all the answers. It is about creating spaces where stories can meet where one woman’s experience can become another woman’s encouragement, questions are welcomed, confidence can grow and young women can see possibilities they may not have seen before.
It became our story.
There is no single version of “Her.” There is your version. You were never waiting to become her. She was already there.