DRC-RWANDA: Putting the past behind them – former child soldiers prepare to go home

KIGALI, 12 November 2007 (IRIN) - Nine years after Burasa Kuzungu was forced to join the Forces Démocratiques de la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) and become a child soldier, he managed to elude his captors and escape into the forest.

“I crawled along the ground like an animal,” Kuzunga, now 18, said. “I used night as a shield and the tactics the FDLR taught me to get away from them.”

He finally made it to the Goma offices of the UN Mission in Congo, MONUC, and was repatriated to his homeland Rwanda, where he was taken to the government-run Muhazi demobilisation centre near the capital Kigali.

UN estimates say tens of thousands of children have been abducted and forcibly recruited into various armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Many were Rwandans whose parents fled to Congo after the 1994 slaughter of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu militias.

At the Muhazi centre, former child soldiers are encouraged to talk about their time with the rebel groups and coached to behave like other children their age.

“When they are with the armed groups in the forest, they are brutal, they are aggressive,” Ally Mugema, a social worker at Muhazi told IRIN. “After a long period in this kind of environment, they have become conditioned and cannot go back into the community behaving that way.”

Rehabilitation

Muhazi was set up by the Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission (RDRC) to manage and implement the government’s programme for ex-combatants.

The RDRC aims “to ensure that all the demobilised ex-combatants are socially and economically reintegrated successfully into their communities”. The commission aims to provide extensive reintegration assistance in the form of formal education, income-generating activities or vocational training.

Most of the boys at Muhazi spend about three months at the centre while the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) searches for their families.

They are taught to read and write, and receive lessons in personal hygiene such as brushing their teeth and washing their own clothes. Those who are severely traumatised undergo extensive counselling.

A 2006 Save the Children report says that many child soldiers are coerced into "volunteering", forced to commit atrocities as military training before being deployed on the front lines. When they escape or are released, they may be rejected by society, refused access to school, and find it impossible to re-enter 'normal' life.

Save the Children protection advisor Johanna MacVeigh said: "Being recruited by armed forces has a devastating effect on children's lives. They are immersed in violence, are subject to terrible abuse and are forced to forfeit love, play, education and hope.”

Psychologists say former child soldiers can suffer from a number of mental health problems, most prominently post-traumatic stress disorder, which develops after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal.

Adjustment problems

Difficulties resulting from the sudden change from civilian life to that of a soldier and then back again sometimes cause "adjustment disorder". Meanwhile, personality disorders, eating disorders and depression are also identified as common after-effects among children who have served as combatants.

While many of the children display a remarkable resilience, counsellors at Muhazi said one of the biggest challenges was undoing the indoctrination of prejudice.

Boys who have escaped the FDLR, a Hutu militia which has links to the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, told IRIN that propaganda sessions with their former captors were commonplace.

“I was told that there are Hutus and there are Tutsis and that the Tutsis were different. They had a longer nose, and Hutus had a flatter nose. It made no sense though,” Kazungu said.

In the run-up to the genocide, there was a media campaign to dehumanise Tutsis, who were described as “cockroaches” in government-controlled radio and news broadcasts.

Many of the Muhazi boys said they eventually lost faith in the ideologies being taught and saw through the “lies”.

“They told me that if I came back to Rwanda, I would be killed,” 17-year-old Harinda Kamari said. “I finally said if they are going to kill me, let them kill me; and I came home.”

But for younger boys in particular, recruitment into armed groups often offers an opportunity to flee from domestic problems.

Nine-year-old Tushimi Emmanuel said an FDLR lieutenant rescued him from the home of an abusive guardian, a woman who once pushed him into a fire. Emmanuel, who has the scars from severe burns along the length of his left arm, says he lived in the lieutenant’s home and was cared for by the man’s wife.

Despite his gratitude at escaping the abuse, the boy soon tired of the FDLR’s activities. “I was watching the FDLR beating people up, harassing people all the time,” he said. “I told the second lieutenant that I wanted to leave. I was of no use to them. They took me to a civilian man outside the village. I told that man that I wanted to go home to Rwanda. He handed me over to MONUC and I was brought here.”

Thirteen-year-old Habimana joined the Mayi Mayi after his father died. He had no place to go and was often beaten as he wandered the streets. The militia provided him with security.

The Mayi Mayi was initially a civilian defence force formed to protect Congolese communities from Rwandan invaders tracking down genocide fugitives. It splintered into fierce militias and has been widely accused of raping, looting and banditry.

Habimana served as the armed guard to a captain until he was shot in the arm in October by bandits.

The Mayi Mayi brought him to a hospital in Goma where doctors turned him over to the ICRC.

Habimana had been at Muhazi for less than a week. He spent much of his time alone, looking out at the lake and avoiding the company of other boys.

Counsellors and former child soldiers say it may be a slow process for Habimana to adjust to his new life.

But, they say, things will certainly improve.

“The life here is very different from the life in Congo,” Kuzungu said. “We no longer hear the sound of guns. We are free.”

Campaign to Improve Customer Care Starts

I was really happy to read this - this truly is a problem and I'm glad it has been acknowledged and some action is being taken.


The New Times (Kigali)
NEWS
6 November 2007
Posted to the web 6 November 2007

By Mansur Kakimba
Kigali

"The land of a thousand hills and a million smiles" is what Rwanda is commonly called-referring to its unique hilly terrain and friendly populace. Unfortunately, the "million smiles" is not adequately reflected in businesses.

Everybody; be it visitors to Rwanda or natives themselves admit there is still big room for improvement in as far as customer service is concerned.

Rwanda aims at being a service-based economy putting emphasis on providing high-end products and services copying Singapore and South Korea as economic growth models. But if no serious action is taken against poor customer service among both public and private institutions in Rwanda, this dream may never come true. The funny bit is everybody talks ill about it-including those that fall short on good customer service-meaning it is disgusting to everyone in society.

You'll hear all sorts of narrations about how Rwandans are poor at customer service.

Stories like how businessmen open and close at hours that please them (other than their esteemed customers); how businessmen fall short on selling etiquettes among many others. Enhancing good and competitive customer service will involve changing peoples' cultural values and attitudes to modern times; something that needs to be done over a long period of time.

The Private Sector Federation (PSF)-Rwanda, the umbrella organisation of all private businesses in Rwanda, intends to start a long-term customer care campaign. It has taken the issue so serious to an extent that it has hired a consultancy to work with its member service and communication department to develop a PSF customer care campaign strategy.

The PSF invited partner institutions; Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency, CEDP/World Bank and Kigali City Council to a preliminary presentation of the campaign. The meeting was well attended by PSF directors of departments and chambers, and top leadership including; Robert Bayigamba the federation chairman, Faustin Mbundu the vice chairman and Emmanuel Hategeka, the Secretary General.

The consultant carried out a research in which it was concluded that there are very poor levels of customer care in Rwanda that is attributed to lack of awareness of its importance. Diagnosing the problem, the consultant said it is everywhere; in all sectors (public and private), at all levels (managerial, employees and employers). The major cause of poor customer care in Rwanda, according to the consultant is negative attitude towards work.

The SWOT analysis however indicates that Rwanda being a nation with one nation with one culture; young and competitive population; eager to learn and responsive will perhaps make it easy to change people's attitude towards work.

The research however further indicates that the large rural population and weak professional base pose great challenge to the campaign. In his remarks, the federation SG said the campaign will be long-term-"two years or even more". He said the campaign would be rolled-out in three phases: diagnosing the problem; encouraging good customer care (Go Extra Mile for Customer-GEMC campaign); and encouraging service excellence. He said the whole campaign would take about two years. That it (campaign) will be a nationwide campaign, popularised through selected channels of media -including; TV, radio, print media and outdoor publicity to reach out to all people of Rwanda.

He assured that the campaign would be launched before the end of this year and would be communicated in Kinyarwanda, English and French. On his part, the chairman of PSF Bayigamba proposed to the consultant that: 'in all forms of communication, he should illustrate to public both sides-poor customer service and what people should do. He also proposed that companies should be encouraged to capture good customer care in their corporate strategies, visions and missions.

Mbundu asked the consultant to devise an evaluation mechanism to assess progress over time. "We intend to select a test group of ten businesses to study how good customer care impact on their sales over time during the campaign," PSF SG responded.

Rosemary Mbabazi who represented Riepa pledged partnership in the campaign, saying: "private sector members are our (Rieapa) clients as well". She suggested that training should be emphasised, "not only to businessmen but also to institutions of higher leaning". "The airport is the gateway to Rwanda. All businesses that relate to the airport should be sensitised on customer care", she further proposed.

As the federation motto states: "Beyond Advocacy", the SG finally said: "We are looking at enhancing competitiveness of businesses in Rwanda besides advocating for their interests. He said a comprehensive campaign with a detailed budget and concrete strategy would soon be presented to PSF Board for endorsing.

"We also intend to bring other partners on board in terms of financial support," he hinted.

RWANDA: Bridging the digital divide to reduce the dependence on aid

Hi all,

This is an article about the 'Connect Africa' conference that took place in Kigali last week. Donors, and investors have pledged billions of dollars to help boost Africa's ICT sector and increase the continent's connectivity. This is a step in the right direction for Africa - it is a highly unconnected continent - and for Rwanda which plans to be a knowledge-based middle-class economy by the year 2020.

Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

The use of mobile phones has exploded across Africa

KIGALI, 2 November 2007 (IRIN) - More than US$50 billion of largely private sector investment has been pledged to develop Africa’s burgeoning information and communication technology (ICT) sector at a summit attended by African heads of state and more than 1,000 representatives from the industry.

This growth will help the continent achieve its ICT UN Millennium Development Goals three years before the target date 2015, the Secretary-General of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Hamadoun Touré, said at the two-day Connect Africa conference in Kigali, which opened on 29 October.

The summit, which swelled from the 500 participants expected by organisers to more than 1,000 investors, and included African leaders and communications ministers, looked at ways of replacing aid with economic development through the growth of ICT.

"For the past 50 years of African independence we have been talking about help, assistance, and we did not go anywhere with that," said Touré. "We are well aware of one thing. No one will get rich from handouts and charity. That is why we are here: we are saying we mean business."

Delegates at the conference lauded the continent’s rapid growth in certain areas of the ICT sector and the investor confidence this has brought.

Africa has experienced inconsistent growth in internet capacity, but the use of mobile phones has exploded across the continent, providing an invaluable social and business tool for hundreds of millions of people.

According to ITU, there were just 16 million subscribers in 2000, but this figure had risen to 136 million by 2005.

The GSM Association, which represents 70 mobile service providers encompassing three billion subscribers worldwide, said its members would double the amount of investment in sub-Saharan Africa to US$50 billion over the next five years to extend coverage to 90 percent of the population.

Community mobile connections

"The mobile industry sees Africa as a major area for development in the next five to 10 years," Tom Phillips, GSM’s chief government and regulatory affairs officer told IRIN.

Phillips said the focus of investors would not be confined to Africa’s upper and middle classes, but extended to remote villages with agriculture-based economies.

The mobile industry sees Africa as a major area for development in the next five to 10 years

"What we’re doing is developing programmes for shared village phone services where up to 500 people can have access to the same phone and have their own voicemail box and get connected with their family, get connected with business," Phillips said.

"Ultimately, it creates the employment, the economic growth and development that will bring that basic infrastructure of electricity and roads to people."

During the summit, industry leaders expressed confidence that Africa could soon boast world-class communications capabilities.

"We are not going to bridge the digital divide," Anthony Von See, the
Vice President of Cisco Systems told IRIN. "We are going to leapfrog over it."

Cisco has set up networking academies across Africa to train men and women to work in the sector. Von See said development across the continent has been paralysed by a lack of trained professionals and the so-called ‘brain-drain’.

Africa – a new customer base

Companies stressed that their efforts should not be viewed as charity, but as aggressive attempts to open up new markets across Africa.

"We have seen time and again that once those fundamental investments are made, there’s a whole series of new customers that are potentially developed," said Michael Rawdings, vice president of Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential group, which, among other things, works to develop technologies and software for youth in impoverished villages in Africa and Asia.

Delegates warned that the biggest challenge was a perception among investors that African nations are plagued by insecurity and corruption.

However, the summit’s organisers, including the ITU, the World Bank and the African Union, said they viewed the sheer numbers of participants at the event as a sign that Africa had at last drawn genuine interest from investors.

"Africa," said ITU’s Touré at the conclusion of the summit, "is open for business."

Microfinance Insitutions in Rwanda

Hi All,

I have now been working as a YEN Associate for over a month in Kigali, Rwanda. While researching information for a capacity building resource guide/training module for youth organizations in Rwanda - I came across the Grameen Bank. As you may already know, the Grameen Bank and Grameen Foundation "help support microfinance programs that enable the poor, mostly women, to lift themselves out of poverty and make better lives for their families through access to financial information and services." I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Grameen is already partnering with MTN RwandaCell in a telecommunications project in 14 out of the 30 districts in Rwanda.

Background

Hundreds of MFIs operating as savings and credit cooperatives have sprouted across the country over the past decade, building a depositors' base three times that held by the commercial banks. Many evolved from aid agencies that emerged in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.

The informal and formal microfinance sectors are both weak in Rwanda and the regulatory framework for MFIs needs to be further strengthened. The government is working to create norms and standards in order to strengthen the sector by enacting some of Africa's most progressive microfinance legislation and regulations.

The microfinance industry in Rwanda contributes significantly to the provision of basic financial services, but it lacks capacity in several areas. Capacity building is needed in management, accounting, internal controls, development of new products, and setting up Management Information Systems (MIS).

Village Phone in Rwanda

With its high population density and low rural teledensity, Rwanda was a natural choice to begin our second program in Africa. Officially launched in 2006 after a year-long pilot with 50 micro-entrepreneurs operating Village Phone businesses, Village Phone Rwanda was created as a joint venture between Grameen Foundation and MTN Rwanda. The Village Phone business is called Tel’imbere, loosely translated as “telephone forward” in Kinyarwanda, Rwanda’s main language. Currently located in 14 of 30 districts, we plan to have over 3,000 Village Phone Operators by 2009.

Village Phone: Connecting Technology and Innovation

Access to affordable telecommunications simply does not exist for millions in the developing world. For some, placing a phone call can require traveling over six miles from their homes. This can mean leaving work and losing out on desperately needed income. Cut off from easy access to communications, these communities are at both an enormous economic and social disadvantage.
Based on the pioneering work of the Grameen Village Phone in Bangladesh, Village Phone and Village Phone Direct extends the benefits of affordable telecommunications access in a sustainable, profitable and empowering way. This relatively inexpensive technology can solve many of the problems the poor in rural villages have faced for decades. Grameen Foundation serves as a catalyst and creates the linkage between the telecommunications sector and the microfinance sector to enable microfinance clients to borrow the money needed to purchase a “Village Phone business” – literally, a business in a box. These grassroots entrepreneurs, or Village Phone Operators (VPOs), operate their businesses in rural villages where no telecommunications services previously existed; they rent the use of the phone to their community on a per-call basis. The VPOs provide affordable rates to their patrons while earning enough to repay their loans and earn profits that allow them to make investments in their children’s health, nutrition and education, and in other business ventures.

Village Phone allows everyone to benefit. VPOs have strong, thriving businesses. Microfinance institutions provide financial services and earn income on the loan interest, as well as commissions from the sale of prepaid airtime cards to their clients. They also attract new clients who are drawn by the opportunity to start a technology-oriented business. Telecommunications companies we partner with benefit by tapping a new market while at the same time furthering their social responsibility objectives. More importantly, individuals living in rural communities gain access to affordable telecommunication services linking them to their friends, family, business contacts and the world.

Overcoming HIV and Building Her Community

Marie-Claire's story - One of Grameen Foundation’s first Village Phone Operators in Rwanda rises above the odds

Village Phone Operator Marie-Claire Ayurwanda stands on the rock foundation of the house she is building in Setwara, Rwanda, and looks at the progress. "I want to finish building this house for my children before I die," she says with resolve. As a woman living with HIV/AIDS, the weight of her words is heavy with a history of struggle and challenge. Yet when she talks about her present and future, her smile is light and her laughter comes easily. The years have not been easy. She had a son 17 years ago and then took in her brother’s two children when he was killed in the 1994 genocide. Her husband died in 2003 of an unknown cause. She then remarried and had a daughter. After learning that her new husband drank too much, she left him. Then, she discovered she had, as she calls it, "the Virus." After her husband died, Marie-Claire decided to start a business and took a 20,000 franc ($40) loan from Village Phone microfinance partner URWEGO to open the Isimbi Restaurant. The profits from the restaurant help support the four children in her household and pay school fees. Set against the backdrop of the rolling Rwandan hillside, Marie-Claire serves goat brochettes (skewers) and Irish potatoes. Her laughter bounces off the bright blue walls of the restaurant as she talks with her customers and employees. And if a customer wants to make a phone call, she proudly takes them to a separate, private room where she has set up her Village Phone.

When Marie-Claire heard about the Village Phone pilot program early in 2005, she quickly got a phone. The business turned out to be profitable enough for her to pay her phone loan off in 5 months (rather than the standard 6 months). So now, all profits from the phone are hers. "Marie-Claire is one of the top five operators in Rwanda out of the fifty businesses created during the pilot phase of the project," George Conard, Technical Project Manager for Grameen Foundation, said. "She sells nearly thirty minutes a day and the phone generates about US$12 a week. In a country with the average income around $230 year, the extra income from the phone has a huge impact on her life." "In addition to paying school fees for my children, I bought the land and the foundation for my new home with the profits from my Village Phone," Marie-Claire says. "If I get some more business to do, in a few years I will die as a rich woman." Work, she says, is what keeps her strong.

After learning she had the virus, she took the risk to tell other business people in the community. "When I told them, they liked me very much because I told the truth," she says. "People see that I have the virus and am still doing business. I am respected in the community and people come and use the phone because of that." Being honest also helps other people living with HIV/AIDS because they see how antiretroviral drugs help Marie-Claire be less tired. "I am very strong because of the medicine," she says. "And I was able to tell my friends, and now they are on the drugs too."

In her village, she is the president of IMPUHWE, an association of people living with HIV. She is now interested in adding a second phone that she can run in another small village. When asked how she would spend the additional income, her goals are focused on developing her community. "I want to buy a pickup," she says. "People in the association have their own gardens with Irish potatoes. With a pickup, I can take the potatoes to Kigali and sell them." Marie-Claire’s son Jean d'Amour, 17, is also interested in giving back to the community. When home from boarding school, he helps his mother at the shop and with the Village Phone to raise money for school fees. "I am very, very, very happy I can go to the Rambura Boys School," he says. "I want to be a doctor to help my neighbors and friends."

Contributed by Tamara Plush

For more information on the work of the Grameen Foundation: www.grameenfoundation.org

RWANDA: Twelve years on: The post-genocide youth

Young people taking part in voluntary activities in Kigali. Twelve years after the genocide, young Rwandans are eager to rebuild their society

NAIROBI, 23 February 2007 (IRIN In-Depth) - Twelve years after the massacres of 1994, Rwanda’s younger generations are struggling to cope with their lives. More than half of the country’s population is under 25-years-old, with 15- to 24-year-olds accounting for nearly a quarter (UNFPA). With one of the world’s highest proportions of orphans and youth-headed families, the difficulties faced by youth in Rwanda are extensive. The killing of almost one million Rwandans during the 100-day massacres deeply affected the country’s social fabric, especially at the family level.

Mobilising youth

The Rwandan minister in charge of youth, sport and culture, Joseph Habineza stressed at a recent press interview that “today, there is an emphasis to involve young people directly into the national development, as a main force of the nation”.

The massive involvement of young Hutu people in the genocide has led to an increasing awareness of the challenges that Rwandan youth face. The government has launched various initiatives to allow young people to take part in the reconstruction of the country and the reconciliation process between communities. Policies are aimed at those aged between 14 and 35 – more than a third of the total population.

Persuading the country’s youth to take part in rebuilding Rwanda has not been difficult. There is a widespread feeling among the young that the country needs to move on from its past, and that everyone should focus on the future. Young people in Kigali regularly take part in ‘Muganda’, mandatory community work every last Saturday of the month. They told IRIN that they happily took part because they wanted to ‘improve’ their country and make it more beautiful.

Another initiative is the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission’s (NURC) ‘Ingados’. NURC, created in 1999, targets youth through temporary camps where different youth groups are taught how national unity and reconciliation should take place. Courses include history and civic education aimed at ‘eradicating the consequences of years of exclusionary ideology that led to the genocide,’ says Geoffrey Murangwa, legal officer at NURC.

Youth facing justice

Exact figures of the number of young people that took part in the genocide are not known – whether their involvement was voluntarily, under peer pressure, or forced. They are, however, all facing justice for their role in the atrocities.

The country’s prisons are overcrowded, and the justice system has become overburdened bringing perpetrators to justice, so a new system – the Gacaca courts – was set up in July 2006. The structure, inspired by the pre-colonial Rwandan justice system, is currently trying genocide suspects in the communities where their crimes were committed. After the genocide, an estimated 120,000 people - adults and youth - were in put in prison. Tens of thousands waited for years until the new courts were established.

Another means of relieving prison congestion was implemented by the government in 2003. Those aged between 14- and 18-years at the time of the genocide were released from prison in return for a confession and pending a trial at a later date. Confessions carried the promise of a reward of a significantly reduced sentence, half of which could be spent doing community service or Travaux d’Intérêt Général (TIG).

Those taking part in the genocide have been classified into three groups: the planners, instigators and masterminds behind the genocide; the perpetrators, conspirators and accomplices causing death; and, those who stole and looted but did not kill.

Emanuel Twagirumukiza, the Executive Secretary of TIG at the Ministry of Justice told IRIN that an estimated 300,000 suspects falling under the second category could serve a part of their sentence in the TIG at some future date.

The first TIG camp opened in September 2005, but it was not until October 2006 that a further seven were opened, admitted Twagirumukiza.

Boniface, 29, spent four years in prison and decided to confess his guilt in 2000 after which he was temporarily released. He was 17 at the time of the genocide, and after having been tried by his local Gacaca, his sentence was commuted to three years community service at the Mageragere TIG in the Nyarugenge district of Kigali. He said the majority of his 200 fellow workers, commonly called tigistes, were in their late twenties and early thirties.

While most of the imprisoned young adults are now looking forward to the end of their sentences, their future is not very bright. Most of them have never received an education, and as a former tigiste can only look forward to a job in the construction industry.

The chief coordinator of Mageragere camp, Leopold Burangayija-Mugarura, disagrees. Burangayija-Mugarura argues that after having spent so many years in prison, the tigistes have had an opportunity to acquire new professional skills. At Mageragere, the convicts have been able to learn stone quarrying, and have built 64 houses for vulnerable people, many of whom are genocide survivors. Other efforts to rehabilitate tigistes include events such as football matches.

More than 7,000 people are still waiting to enter the TIG programme, said Twagirumukiza, and that figure will rise as the Gacaca process continues. However, it is still not clear how many young people remain in prison, as the official line states that all 14- to 18- year-olds at the time of the genocide were released on confession. The League for Human Rights in the Great Lakes Region (LDGL) revealed that in 2005 there were still some 861 minors, allegedly convicted for genocide, being held in the country’s 12 largest prisons.

Living in the shadow of genocide: The plight of the survivors

Life was never meant to be hard for Gervais, 19, who was born into a relatively wealthy family in Kigali. His mother worked at the Rwandan National Bank in 1994 at the time of the genocide. When the Interahamwe - the extremist Hutu armed gangs - first came on 7 April 1994, a day after the start of the genocide, she gave them money in exchange for their lives. However, it soon appeared that money was not enough. The family fled to nearby Gitarama province where all were killed except himself, his sister and his brother. Gervais was just seven-years-old, but remembers that time well: “My brother was 12 and he suffered a great deal. He had to work hard to make us live.” Many young people lost their family during the genocide, and have struggled to cope with caring for themselves and their siblings.

Claude Rutagengwa, Regional Coordinator of the Great Lakes Peace Initiative (GLPI), found, in a survey conducted in 2005, that approximately 195,000 youth under 20 years of age are the heads of households in Rwanda. Although they might have not suffered directly from the atrocities, their lives have been deeply affected by the death of their relatives, from years of exile in neighbouring countries, the effect of war delaying their studies, and the trauma of witnessing atrocities at such a young age.

Gervais told IRIN that at no point in his childhood had he been taken care of by adults. He and his siblings are now living on their own in a house given to them by the new Tutsi-dominated government. The FARG (Victims of Genocide Fund) later financed his brother’s and sister’s studies in secondary school, but Gervais has been told it will not be possible for him. Nevertheless, he considers himself lucky.

“A lot of young people like me don’t even have the chance to have a house, they are wandering in the streets. You often meet these young people who are working in somebody else’s house although they are bright and could have pursued their studies,’’ revealed Gervais.

Many of Rwanda’s youth do not get the opportunity to complete secondary school. According to UNICEF statistics, the secondary school enrolment ratio in Rwanda is among the lowest in Africa and the world, amounting to 15 percent for boys and 14 percent for girls.

Eric, 25, who witnessed the death of both his parents in April 1994, complained that the government did nothing to help him and his two brothers after the genocide. Although they were initially taken care of by a Belgian priest, the problem of their food and shelter continued after the priest died.

Eric recently obtained a short-term contract at the German Red Cross in Kigali to look after young orphans. He said many come from the streets but often return to it and become delinquents. Traumatised by the past and with little adult guidance or care, they slip back to the life they know - which will in turn lead them to theft, violence and drug trafficking. But, Eric added, “A lot of young people living in the streets also take drugs themselves, to keep their spirits up, to win the force.”

In the Gatenga district of Kigali, the Don Bosco centre provides education and vocational training for vulnerable children and youth up to 25-years-old. Skills taught include carpentry, leatherwork, sewing and farming. There is also a possibility for young people who have fallen behind in their studies for whatever reasons (refugee returnees, orphans, youngsters who lost trace of their parents) to undergo a one-year catch-up course so that they can take official exams.

Father Jean-Pierre at the Don Bosco centre told IRIN that the main problem young people face in the centre is not entirely related to their professional orientation. “For most of them, the trauma of having lost their parents and having no family at all is very heavy, even if we provide them with food and care, we will never replace that.”

Report can be found online at:http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70037