At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program

by Empower Develop Dignify (EDD)
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At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program
At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program

Project Report | Jul 17, 2018
10th Report 23114 project

By Charles Hazabintwali | Executive Director

Kids smiles
Kids smiles

Les Enfants de Dieu (EDD) is really happy to share our 10th report on our progress fom all the support received with this last three months period. The work was hard specialwith the remitted support in this year but we are able to carry out the priorities and hope to be able to funds for the rest of the activities.

 We will brief you on the process and progress of our programmes in education, health, reintegration, agriculture, etc, including the challenges and successes we have seen in past 3 months. Firstly we thank all the people who live the comments and feedback down to our our first newsletter – we learned a lot from all your advice and appreciated your encouraging words!

As you know, EDD maximises the participation of children in all areas of the work though the Ministry system, so that the children are involved fully in all activities. This gives them a great understanding of their responsibilities in the general life of the center and includes them fully in the ongoing process of evolution of EDD. From 9th to 11th June, Les Enfants de Dieu took part in a three day workshop which involved sitting with all the stakeholders to learn from each other about how best we can overcome the challenges we are meeting these days (school dropout for reintegrated boys and parental irresponsibility, etc.). We worked together to try to see how EDD can continue to have a positive impact on the lives of street children. In 2016, we devised a new Strategic Plan and now we are seeing ways in which we can amend it to continue to achieve the fruitful results we expect to deliver. After 16 years of growing and developing, EDD now faces external factors like governmental policies and funding conditions which challenge us to engage in a process of change in a healthy and forward looking way. We are still in the midst of this process and working to fine tune the future solutions, but basically it will mean giving greater consideration to parents and families (where the roots of the difficulties lie) and also offering a range of practical life skills workshops and trainings to our working age Alumni. We will continue with the process of rehabilitation and reintegration of former street children as well.  We will share more details about this next time, as for now we are in the midst of this development! For now, here are some of the pictures from that workshop:

 

 

Kids participating in the community: EDD has started to encourage kids to join in community activities, and especially Umuganda (the nationwide monthly community collaboration at village level). This is where kids learn how to play a part in improving the lives of others and of the community as a whole.  Here you can see some of the boys helping others to build a new home for a local family in need:

Education program: children started this quarter with the school holidays for three weeks where they rested, did their revision and joined in the village level events arranged for Genocide Commemoration Week. We believe that it is very important for EDD to help children know about the orientation and history of their country. All EDD students started school on time and we are pleased to report that we were able to pay for all the necessary materials beforehand. Right now we are supporting more students in school ever than before and we congratulate the EDD families, friends and supporters for making it possible to school 284 students at all levels of education (193 in Primary, 56 in Secondary, 24 at Vocational training and 11 at university). EDD paid for the school fees, school materials and transport for the kids from the families who cannot afford them but only the registration fees for university students. We thank all people who donate in little by little campaign and other individuals who donated in different time.

Smart Class: With the great support of Hicommands PVT Limited, Les Enfants de Dieu started a new way of teaching kids at the centre using a digital system! Many thanks to the Hicommands team for donating this resource to the EDD education programme!

 

Health:

Good health is one of the major preoccupations in the life of the center. We help all the children to understand disease prevention on a daily basis through good bodily and environmental hygiene and cleanliness, and of course we buy and use all the necessary materials for disease prevention. Malaria is the most common disease affecting many kids, and so we are really happy that in partnership with one volunteer and a member of the board, we now have 150 new mosquito nets and 3 mosquito killing machines which are playing a significant role in reducing the infection rates - malaria cases went down by almost 30% in this three month period compared to last term. What’s more, the prevalence is usually higher at this time of year because it has been the rainy season!  We have been dealing with three major health issues – one youngster has a serious heart problem, another suffers from epilepsy and a third has significant mental health issues - which have required a lot of involvement from many members of the staff team. One of these boys is still in hospital. The small or big contribution of different people make these help happen.  

 

Dental treatment: Les Enfants de Dieu, in partnership with The University of Rwanda’s School of Dentistry, did a dental check-up for all 105 children. The 64 kids who had problems with their teeth were all treated within a month! We extend our special thanks to the School of Dentistry for what they did this year, and for their commitment to do the same every year!

Basic needs of daily living: EDD helped kids to get new clothes and new bedclothes as well as the usual three meals a day and other domestic requirements. Many people contributed to these things in different ways and we give our thanks for that.Here you can see a lovely social day and meal with some of our visitors who spent time really getting to know the kids and interacting with them – a pleasure to share the EDD way of life with them for a couple of days!

Family visit and reintegration: Les Enfants de Dieu recruited 16 kids, did 24 family visits in different areas of country and reintegrated 15 youngsters back into their families in end of 2018. This all went well thanks to the hard work and contribution of all the kids, staff and parents involved. There were some challenges on the way, for example the car breaking down several times, creating delays for the work. We continue to hope we will find sponsorship for new vehicle to replace the old one.

With this process of reintegration, we have encountered some hinderances, including being unable to reconnect 3 kids with their families as they came from other countries (EDD is not allowed to do reintegration abroad). In the hope of finding a solution, we are partnering with the Government and ICRC/CICR (International Committee of the Red Cross) to see if we can find a way for them to return safely home to their countries and communities. We have a further 10 kids for whom we have no information about their families and who therefore will stay at the center for longer than usual, until either we can find a foster family for them or else they finish their studies and can be reintegrated to live independently. These issues are not new but as we have had to change our way of working now that the youngsters can only stay at EDD for a shorter period, these are now exceptional cases and we are looking at how to find the best solutions for these children in long run.    

 

Talents - sport, games, culture, arts and dance activities:  

All these extra-curricular activities are helping as usual to change the mindsets of the kids and build their strengths and life skills (discipline, co-ordination, team working, imagination etc) before they go back into their families. Each skill or activity has its own benefit in the lives of the children and we thank all the different supporters who have put time and energy into making these programs go so well. It is amazing to see how skillful the kids are as well as a pleasure to see how much they enjoy these activities!

One boy’s story:

Here is the story of one of our boys, transcribed from his own words: 

I am Dan and I am 19years old. I didn’t know my mum as she passed away when I was 3 years old.  I grew up with my father and step mother who mistreated me badly until I decided to leave. My father was very irresponsible, and he and his wife often beat me. I went onto the street in 2005 and life became even harder than before. However, I had some street mates there and we were able to have some fun sometimes too. In 2008 EDD came to see us on the street and advised us to choose to join them and change our lives! I took the decision to leave street life and join EDD! In the beginning it was very hard and I was thinking of going back to the street again but with the advice of my educators, I decided to stay and learn a lot in the time I had at the center.  Meanwhile my father passed away as all of them had HIV/AIDS and so I did not have anywhere to be reintegrated. Later, in 2015, I joined a vocation training school in kitchen management skills and I graduated after one year. I did an internship at La Palisse hotel and they offered me a job after my internship period! I am doing well and I have now reached the level of being sought after by different hotels because of my skills and experience in baking and kitchen arts. I am paid well and see that I have a bright future. I thank Les Enfants de Dieu and everyone who invested time, energy and love in helping me to build my life.

 

Our sustainability projects:

EDD has an established Agriculture program, utilizing the various properties EDD already had and others provided by Board members to develop and see how we can generate income from our own work. During this three month period, we harvested 600kg of bananas which is equivalent to 150000 Rwf and we have started to eat the beans and maize from our own plantations. Within three months we have consumed vegetables equivalent to 2000 Rwf/day from our own farm. We expect to reach the point where at least 30% of our nutritional costs can be met from our own work in these sustainable areas of activity.

 

Art gallery:

Some time ago, Les Enfants de Dieu initiated a program of teaching art and painting to the children and helping them to sell their handiwork. Of the money raised, 60% contributes to EDD’s costs and 40% goes to the young artist to help motivate them to continue to develop their skills. This program brought in 250 USD within these three months and we are actively exploring other market outlets for the art work they are producing (Charles and Simeon were even interviewed on Rwandan TV as you can see in the photo!) With a help of Julie, a friend of EDD in the UK, we initiated a new way of selling images of the paintings through a business which allows people to print the image they choose on items such as cups, clothes, phone and computer covers etc. We are hope this new outlet will bring results for the young artists and for the centre.

As stated in the last report, we thank all of you who donate though the little by Little campaign: we raised around one thousand two hundred USD ($1200) within a week! But doesn’t worry, if you missed it this time, you still have the chance to donate again!

We want to conclude this 10th report by expressing our huge gratitude to all of our donors, friends and partners in this important ongoing work of rehabilitating and reintegrating kids and youngsters back into their families, both socially and economically. From now onwards, we will continue updating you every time on our progress as one way to stay in touch wherever you are on the world. Thank you again for your all the help in the past- it is all deeply appreciated. And please feel free to give a feedback on for our work and report – you are always very welcome and we are always happy to hear from you!

Ministers, a volunter and Charles
Ministers, a volunter and Charles
Kids fixing Canal + Antenal
Kids fixing Canal + Antenal
Dantal screening for the boys
Dantal screening for the boys
Lunch of the boys !
Lunch of the boys !
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Apr 25, 2018
Ninth Report of 23114 project

By Charles Hazabintwali | Executive Director

Jan 29, 2018
8th Report of #23114 project

By Charles Hazabintwali | Executive Director

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Organization Information

Empower Develop Dignify (EDD)

Location: Kigali, Rwanda - Rwanda
Website:
Facebook: Facebook Page
Project Leader:
Charles Hazabintwali
Kigali , Est Africa Rwanda

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