The safe space...

AviAssist, an NGO, is dedicated to promoting and enhancing aviation safety in Africa since 1995. It supports the safety oversight and safety promotion functions from civil aviation authorities, airlines, airports, ground handlers and many other aviation actors. And now, it initiated Africa’s first physical safety promotion centre.

The AviAssist Safety Promotion Centre (ASPC)-Rwanda is a hub for learning, researching and experiencing aviation safety. For the current and next generations of Africa’s aviation professionals.

“Training, education, and safety communication are important elements of safety promotion”, AviAssist board member Harriet Nakazwe explained: “The mission of our first ASPC is to inspire Africa’s changing and growing workforce to advance the continent’s safety culture.”

The ASPC-Rwanda was inspired by examples in Tokyo and Seattle. It combines lessons from significant aviation (near) accidents with the history of aviation safety. The centre works with exhibits that provide background on lessons learned from aviation tragedies in the past.

Tours of ASPC-Rwanda for professionals are available on appointment. Visitors are actively encouraged to share their perspectives on safety on the displays, for further inspiration of other visitors in the future.

The ASPC-Rwanda finds a home at the University of Rwanda. “Rwanda’s aviation industry is growing rapidly”, Dr Ignace Gatare of the College of Science and Technology of the University of Rwanda explained. “Our university is keen to support that growth with courses such as our envisioned aerospace engineering course.

“The ASPC-Rwanda gives Rwanda, with the ambition to be a knowledge-based economy, the opportunity to play a leading role in pushing the boundaries of aviation safety beyond mere regulatory compliance”.

AviAssist director Tom Kok added: “We already are serving seasoned professionals in Africa’s aviation industry, but now we are excited to also work with aviation students and youngsters interested in a career in aviation. We are doing that with universities and vocational training institutes, but also with associations such as the Young Aviators Club of Africa that performs outreach programs to secondary schools”.

Next to education, the ASPC-Rwanda will also perform research. At the moment, most data used in the African aviation industry that feed decisions on risk management, come from other continents; North America, Asia and Europe.

Christopher McGregor, chairman of the AviAssist board, said: “Home grown talents can fuel growth in safety data analysis. This can positively influence and develop safety risk management across the continent. Universities will play an important role in building a reliable data ecosystem.

“That’s why we are so pleased that our first AviAssist safety promotion centre is housed at the University of Rwanda. Decision makers can increasingly demand relevant information to lay the foundation for changes to procedures, policy making, budgeting and investment decisions.”

“The industry has a unique opportunity to help build universities and institutions in Africa that can deliver the next generation of safety researchers”, ASPC-Rwanda trainee Alain Dusingize pointed out.

“Institutions like the one I am coordinating here in Rwanda, will support capabilities of African universities to conduct safety research in a very cost-effective way.”

AviAssist director Tom Kok said: “African aviation is its own industry, with its own dignity. We must work together as an industry. Our ASPC will help to emphasise the importance of safety, by showing and discussing where we have been, where we are going, and why we must never be complacent in our pursuit of safety.”

Africa’s aviation industry is excited with the centre’s official opening in September 2025. Kok added: “With our first ASPC in Rwanda, we want to strengthen the personal commitment to safety of each African aviation professional. The opening allows the continent a unique opportunity to enhance its safety culture.”