Our first intake of trainees were all girls, and they often headed female-only orphaned households, which are sadly still the most seriously at risk of abuse in Rwanda.  Lacking adult support, either through the deaths of all family members or because those remaining are permanent invalids and themselves require care, these girls have been left at a young age with full responsibilities for caring for younger siblings and sick relatives. Some orpahns have not yet reached their teens when they find themselves running a household.

For a year the teenagers attended daily training sessions in basket weaving, tailoring, knitting, embroidery, woodcarving, painting and card making.  Each girl was given a goat and instruction in its care. All were expected to share responsibility for the care of a CHH garden at the center, which provided them with vegetables and food while training and also to take home for their families. 

Regular examinations and assessments followed the girls’ progress throughout the year. August 2010 saw the completion of training for this first intake of Child Heads of Household children sponsored by Jubilee Action and 31 girls began preparations for their September exams. 

After graduating, many girls were eager to stay together both for the continued company and support of their peers and also to build on what they had learned. They set up a cooperative with advice from FCYF and met soon after graduation to elect a President and begin to develop their strategy for producing and selling goods. Volunteer donations enabled them to buy their own machines to render them independent from the FCYF center equipment, which is in use for training subsequent intakes. Gradually the graduates accumulate experience in key marketing issues as pricing and promotion. And their order books grow as they find local markets for sweaters, skirts and mats that may prove even more sustainable than the passing tourist traffic.

FCYF Volunteer Community Mentors (NKUNDABANA = “I love children”)

Prior to joining training, each orphaned household identifies and proposes a preferred mentor from their local surroundings. Each household is supported by FCYF to state their needs and negotiate a desired mentor role with the individual they have chosen. Mentors are expected to visit the children regularly, advocate for the household, follow their progress and monitor any problems.  All FCYF mentors receive training from FCYF human rights and psychosocial specialists on the rights of a child (including vitally important inheritance rights). They also receive skills training how to provide active listening and practical support to a household suffering from grief at the loss of parents and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from the many difficult events all have experienced.

Monthly nkundabana meetings at the Nyange community center enable mentors and FCYF to identify solutions and resolve issues. Training sessions are held regularly, during which the mentors may also meet with heads and staff of local health, social and legal services, to better understand and be able to access support available in the community for their young mentees.

FCYF currently has more than 40 trained and active volunteers mentors, many of whom were orphans themselves and understand from first hand experience the challenges the children face. We are so grateful for the active support and participation of these wonderful people. The are the very backbone of our community support system to FCYF trainees and their households. Together, CHH trainees, their mentors and our hardworking FCYF staff are working together to restore a war- and trauma-torn fabric of local society and to create a strong Rwanda.

 The Class of 2011

In late 2010, FCYF took a policy decision, based on advice from our girl trainees, their Nkundabana and other community feedback, to include boys with girls in the CHH vocational training program. All in the community had testified to a total dearth of male youth training opportunities in the area, as well as to an acute and urgent need for male youths too old for primary education to find alternative ways to become educated and gainfully occupied.  

At the end of 2010, 22 girls and 16 boys, aged between 15 and 18, started training. Another policy change meant that the new intake focused on one trade or craft in order to become truly proficient in their chosen specialism and capable of producing goods of a high enough standard to be sold in our newly opened FCYF Nyange shop even before they complete training. This decision has proved very successful for trainees, who are now graduating with a high level of skill.  

Meanwhile, this year 16 goats were acquired for a collective breeding CHH program, with orphans being trained by mentors to become directly involved in the animals' care and husbandry. By the end of 2011, the herd had multiplied to 46 goats. A collective potato growing project was also initiated, to supplement vegetables from the CHH garden at the Nyange center and in local communities. 

Regular supplies of maize and beans are provided to all students, so that  families do not go hungry while their household heads  attend training. These have also been supplemented during a particularly difficult food year in Rwanda, which continues to experience spiraling inflation, by some much appreciated food donations through funds raised by international volunteers. Additional donations have also been used to provide households with the most basic of necessities that so many of them lack, including blankets, saucepans, plates, spoons, jerry cans and hoes

Trainers

Alphonsine Uwamahoro has proved an invaluable addition to the FCYF training team, enabling students to specialize in trades such as electricity, mechanics and plumbing, for which local employment exists. Fatima Mukarugwizangoga continues to train in embroidery and tailoring, Immaculee Uwamariya teaches basket weaving and knitting and Jean de Dieu Nkulikiyimana sees great success with his students in wood carving, art and design. A wood carved gorilla by a trainee recently fetched 70 pounds sterling when sold to FCYF supporters in the UK.  

Social Worker

Current trainees (and indeed some of our graduates) continue to enjoy the support of our dedicated social worker. Jacqueline Mukandayisenga says: “The aim of the CHH social worker is to monitor the way the children live in their homes, their behavior in society, their hygiene and health, and how they manage their families.  I also supervise how they rear the domestic animals we give them and how they tend seedlings from the kitchen garden. 

I look to identify the children who need our help and support, and to discover their many problems. Sadly, there are many children in this position who still need our help.”

New Graduates - New Income

With the completion of training by the second intake of students in 2011, FCYF graduates from the Nyange center already number 78, and a third trainee intake has already begun to learn useful trades and crafts that will enable them to support their families. The knitting cooperative has already provided the Deaf Centerwon a major contract from Wisdom school to provide uniform sweaters for 2012. Such orders enable graduates to maintain and improve their skills while also making money to keep their families alive and sending younger siblings to school. 

A CHH girl says: “A child who heads a household has to take care of their brother or sisters, playing the role of a parent despite still being a child themselves. We face many problems.  FCYF stands up for us, helps us to face our problems, defends us and others in bad situations, and protects us from sexual and physical violence.  They encourage us to learn a craft and help us with our future.”