Name: Ms. Paula Ingabire
Role: Minister of ICT and Innovation of the Republic of Rwanda
MA: What does wellness mean to you?
Wellness is a necessity. I know to some people it might feel like a luxury or a trend, but from my point of view, it is not and it is for everyone. When you prioritize your wellness, you respond better to the pressures that life throws your way. It is complementary to who you are. The adage that “if your cup is empty, you have nothing to give”, is true. As an individual, if you are not prioritizing your wellness or self-care, then you cannot sustain what you give to others, or even how you handle your own aspects of life.
MA: Is wellness a priority to you? If Yes, How?
Like I mentioned before, wellness is a necessity and yes, it’s a priority to me. I need to caution that we all handle or prioritize our wellness in different ways but I think one has to navigate through, vis-a-vis other things that give them balance and ensure they are taking care of themselves.
I do a number of things ranging from mental health to self-care as a way of taking care of myself. I make sure I workout at least 4 to 5 times a week because this is so important to me. Some people are probably wondering how I manage to do it with my busy schedule. At first, I wasn’t consistent with my workouts. I always worked out in groups and I only showed up when the group members showed up. I had to find a trainer who would hold me accountable and push me through every single time I had to workout. Another thing is that, I had to find the right hours to workout. My workouts are scheduled between 5:30AM to 6:30AM because I know anywhere during the day, anything can happen and I’ll probably not be able to keep up with my schedule.
I also watch what I eat. If you’re wondering how I get to know what kind of food works for me and what kind of food doesn’t, this can be done in various ways like identification of the blood group as well as metabolism levels. I make sure I’m on the right diet and I am very intentional about everything I put into my body.
It is the same when it comes to mental health because like I said, everything is intertwined. Even in the professional life, you can’t always be giving. So, setting off time to read a book or learn something new is important. I sometimes have ambitious plans to learn something new in a week or a month. It doesn’t have to be within my career space/ line, it can be something totally different but I also consider the career space sometimes.
As a mother of 3 (The eldest being 9, the middle one 7 and the youngest 4), when it comes to wellness, it involves making time for the kids. I sometimes ask them to workout with me, they are young and energetic. I know they will grow to love it with time because it’s an activity we do together. I usually tell my colleagues that if things are not going well at home, it affects their productivity at work. In the same vein, if the things are not going well at work, it affects who they are at home because they tend to spend more hours at work.
So, when you talk about mental health, it’s really critical that you empower the people you spend most of your time with, but also enable them to empower you thus creating a safe environment amongst yourselves.
MA: How do you think ICT can contribute to wellness?
I think we have all seen the silver lining during the pandemic and how technology has taken over almost everything. When it comes to self-care and wellness, we see a lot of potential mobile devices, applications and services that help with precision health care and I am trying to figure out how to shift it into personalized health care.
“Prevention is better than cure”, but when it comes to the role technology is playing in terms of promoting wellness (it could be with the gadgets we all have), you can be able to monitor your health status at any time. This includes stress levels, pressure and so much more. Sometimes one can be having health issues but because they can’t tell what it is. They easily brush it off until it is too late. So, when you have all of these technology facilities that keep you updated with your health status and help with controlling your health, it makes it easy. For example they can help with how many calories you’re consuming and so much more. It can be really stressful keeping up with all of that by yourself that you eventually end up not enjoying life.
Technology has also been a great enabler for how to handle health and wellness better during the pandemic. The adoption of technology like fitness trackers and online exercise programs has been extremely helpful. During the time when most countries were enduring lockdowns and sports centers/ gyms were closed, it enabled many people figure out how to keep their workouts ongoing. Something they could not do if they did not have technology.
However, I always caution people to make sure they are doing it in the way they enjoy it. You don’t have to obsess about it to the point of not enjoying life in the name of monitoring calories. To be honest, I don’t track my calories. Rather I just focus on working out and eating healthy.
In conclusion, these trackers enable us to actively work on our wellbeing so we can avert some symptoms before they have manifested and it’s too late or even need more intensive care to get back to health.
In many ways, you’re going to see this industry unfold various new devices and programs to continue to benefit us as we take care of ourselves.
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Biography:
Paula Ingabire is a Rwandan technology enthusiast, who currently serves as the Minister of ICT and Innovation in the Government of Rwanda. Prior to her appointment as Minister, she served as Head of the ICT Business Development Department at the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) where she led the implementation of National ICT programs notably eGovernment and Cyber Security; as well as the coordinator of the Kigali Innovation City Project, a flagship program of the Government designed to nurture and strengthen a Pan-African Innovation eco-system in Rwanda.
Minister Ingabire coordinated the creation of Smart Africa, an initiative that seeks to leverage broadband infrastructure as a driver for Africa’s socio- economic growth.
A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s School of Engineering & Sloan School of Management, in the System Design and Management program and holds a BS in Computer Engineering and Information Technology from the University of Rwanda; Paula was named in 2019 by Apolitical among the Top 20 of the World’s 100 most influential people in digital government. She serves on the Global Council of the World Summit Award Board of Directors, World Economic Forum Cyber Security Board, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Global Network Advisory Board and the WEF Board of Trustees. In January 2021, Paula Ingabire has been named founding board member of the EDISON Alliance.