Support 70 street girls and teen/pre-teen mothers.

To all of our supporters and donors:

  On behalf of Centre Marembo and the girls and women of Rwanda, we want to thank you for supporting the important work we do. 

  The journey for preventing violence against young women in Rwanda and transforming the lives of the community of beneficiaries we work directly with, is very hard and complicated. It requires a lot of effort in terms of resources and synergies of actors.  This year has proven to be very challenging but no matter the difficulties and barriers we faced, Centre Marembo has continued supporting our community, which includes homeless young girls, victims of violence and rape, teen and pre-teen mothers, and their children.

  Centre Marembo will never stop and will continue to stand up for the rights of young girls and women in a world where their voice is unheard or ignored. The journey is long, but we make sure to celebrate all achievements big and small along the way.   

  Attached is a PDF report to show the accomplishments back from July 2022-July 2023, which is the time period we usually write official annual reports. We will continue mini-report updates that happened after July 2023 in the future GlobalGiving reports.

Once again, thank you for the ongoing support and spreading awareness on the matter of GBV.

• 2022-2023 ANNUAL REPORT FILE (PDF)
  

Hello all!

It has been awhile since we made our last update. A report was suppose to be submitted a couple of weeks ago, however we were preoccupied with the renovation works of Centre Marembo's Rehabilitation and Reintegration shelter (sometimes known as Abatuje shelter) and its surroundings, we missed the submission deadline.

We still want to show you the work in progress of the renovation works, as shown one of the photos taken at the site. The renovated look of the shelter will have extended offices to have legal, counselling and support staff members for providing such services and guidance to adolescent mothers, GBV victims and children, in addition to physcotherapy, coaching, and lastly, the advocacy and promotion of children's and women's rights.

The same shelter will also have a ECD center for ages 3-6, where two already exisiting spaces will be used for classrooms, as well as providing a play area for the children.

The main shelter building will be renovated as well. The completion on the renovation works is undetermined, but we hope it will be ready within the next 2-3 months, depending on the factors (example: rainy or poor sunny weather).

This past year Centre Marembo attended the annual 16-days campaign, under the theme "UNITE: Build a Violence-free Society". 

We hope you all look forward to further updates on the Abatuje shelter's renovation process and other additional activities.

Hello everyone!

It has been quite some time since we made any news.

We gave the Centre Marembo's tailoring and sewing workshop a new paint job and tiling floors, as it definently needed it after over 2 1/2 years of temporary closure. 

Right now the sewing workshop is admist in creating products, hopefully ready to be sold during Christmas Bazaar shops and events, but also in other souvenir or gift stores, and from Centre Marembo's own gift shop.

We are excited to share the photos soon once the products are ready to go into the market.

In other additional news, our egg production is still ongoing; we are currently working on new concept ideas to further strengthen Centre Marembo Agro-pastoral project by adding a few more things. Once we can confirm these ideas can be implemented, we will share futher developing story on the farming project.

Hello to all of our kind supporters, we have a couple of new updates Centre Marembo would like to share with you:

Highlighting the ongoing importance on GBV prevention

 While gender-based violence (GBV) still persists in the present day, Rwanda is still finding different innovative methods to prevent harmful actions that violates human rights of girls and women. In order to educate the public on this matter and spread awareness, various institutions and organizations organise ways to let the public hear the testimonies of the GBV victims.

  On 9th of June 2022, two young mothers who are GBV victims were invited to the Imanzi Radio station to share their testimonies on the GBV in the families; Executive Director of Centre Marembo, Nicolette Nsabimana, and Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Teddy Ruyenzi, were also present during the radio broadcast.

  The aim of this broadcast is to bring voice to of the children, young mothers and GBV victims and their stories, and emphasize the importance on a proactive action or method in GBV prevention. 

During the interview, Teddy expresses towards the public on the fight against GBV:

"We need concerted efforts by the families in order to eradicate the violence in our communities.”

"....We need to strengthen community awareness, go down to the grassroots, reach to all groups; women, men, couples, children, local leaders and mentors to build a collective bond.’’

 We would like to the many radio listeners who listened throughout this important broadcast.

An important note:

  Rwanda is experiencing an increase in the local market price, as a response to the global substantial economic instability and stagflation; it has affected majority of various items and services, such as fuel, school fees, food and other basic need items.Combining with the slow economic rate, high unemployment rate and low supply rate, these factors are adding more pressure onto the marginalised and vulnerable groups, having a negative effect on the daily lives of children, girls and teen mothers.

  To give an example, fuel costs 1.42 USD per litre/ 5.38 USD per gallon (for gasoline); for diesel, the fuel costs 1.46 USD per litre/ 5.53 USD per gallon. Another is a 20 litre cooking oil, which last month or so costs around 40,000 RWFs (about 38 USD); the same cooking oil is now increase by about 20%, costing almost 50,000 RWFs (about 50 USD). Since the beginning of this year, many goods have experienced a substantial increase in prices over a period of 5-6 months. 

Centre Marembo has got some interesting news to share with you!

16 Days of Activism 2021

  As of 10^th of December 2021, Centre Marembo has joined with Gasabo district residents to carry out activities relating to the 16 Days of Activism. This was an important campaign as voicing out a wake-up call on the subject of gender-based violence (aka GBV) to support victims affected by it and addressing the issues on unwanted pregnancies. The following theme was: “Speak Out! End Gender-Based Violence.”

  The Executive Director of Centre Marembo, Nicolette Nsabimana, invited authorities, private sectors and others to encourage young mothers and girls within the public to participate in non-traditional work. The audience also had the chance to listen to the testimonies given by Centre Marembo beneficiaries, who themselves are affected by GBV. Throughout the campaign, the Centre Marembo beneficiaries participated in several radio stations to share their testimonies and spread encouraging messages to bring out the fight against GBV and unwanted pregnancies.

  As to mark the closure of the anti-GBV campaign, a walk demonstration was held at Mukuyu Cell, within the Ndera Sector.

A surprise visit!

  On 5^th March, a group of seven people visited Centre Marembo with a heartwarming surprise as they donated various items, including clothes, food, juice, milk, menstrual pads and so on, to help the young mothers of Centre Marembo. Not only that, but they even paid medical insurances for 20 of the young mothers, including their children. Centre Marembo is truly grateful for this act of kindness and that momentous day will forever engrave in our hearts.

Agro-pastoral project is back!

  After 15 months of postponement due to covid-19, we have finally resumed farming activities with the purchase of over 1,065 few-weeks old chicks back in December 2021, to produce eggs in order to fight malnutrition observed in children and young mothers, as well serving as an income-generating activity through selling of the eggs and chicken manure (as organic fertiliser) to the market. 

  The hens are now 3-4 months old and it will take another month for them to start producing the eggs. The total purchase of the chicks was 1,200,000 RWFS (roughly 1,190 USD, or 900 GBP) and a 10 days supply of chicken feed costs 240,000 RWFS (approx. 175 GBP or 231 USD).

Women’s International Day

  On March 8th, Centre Marembo, its partners, friends and young mothers gathered to this day to celebrate and looking at on how women and girls can fight against climate change, as this year's current theme is "Gender equality in fighting against Climate change". Discussions highlighted on how to mitigate its effects and explores on how impoverished women and girls are vulnerable to the climatic change, since their rely on natural resources, mainly agricultural, as an income source when selling farm produce to the market. 

  Since both covid-19 and the climatic changes added more pressure on increasing inequalities, violence and driving vulnerable people into poverty, thus regressing their progress on their employment, education and well-being.

  To mark the end of Women's International Day, the Centre Marembo beneficiaries were invited to participate in the Voice of Girls’ program on Imanzi FM local radio station and received various positive responses and constructive feedback from the audience -who were listening on the radio channel- after sharing their testimonies as a single young mother, the challenging experiences they went through and the solutions to overcome said challenges. 

End Note: 

  Centre Marembo would like to express deepest gratitude to you all for making such an impact on our community.  You all are the greatest supporters who believe in our cause and we appreciate following our progress throughout these challenging two years.