Six out of every ten people live in poverty, on less than US$1 a day. One out of every ten children dies before their fifth birthday. And life expectancy is just 46 years. Nearly all children get enrolled in primary school, but only half of them complete it. Many have to work to support their families. AIDS has had a devastating effect on many families, and together with the genocide, accounts for Rwanda having one of the highest proportions of orphans in the world.
In November 2011, a focus group discussion with 33 community members was held in Rubaya to introduce the concept of accountability. The aim is that community members decide what mechanisms fit their project best. People are respectful and raise their hands before talking, but the room is buzzing with ideas.
“I can’t wait to start school,” says Feza, who’s six. For two years, she’s been coming to an Early Childhood Care and Development Centre that we support in south-western Rwanda. With Save the Children’s help, Feza’s community is runs the centre where children aged three to six can come and prepare to start school.
Save the Children has built a maternity ward in Kirambo which is now ready to support pregnant mothers. As their due date approaches, mothers-to-be come to the health centre where there’s waiting room for them to rest. When the time comes they give birth in one of two equipped delivery rooms with skilled birth attendants.
Save the Children has recently built a maternity ward at Ntaruka Health Centre. This includes a waiting room for mothers in the last stages of their pregnancy, a fully-equipped delivery room, and a room for post-partum care and recovery.
In this part of Rwanda many adults work just across the border in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it is extremely helpful for them to have a safe and stimulating place for their children to spend a few hours each day.
I was reading on papers about the economic crisis and about the money that governments have been using to support banks in developed countries. I couldn’t help to think about people in Africa who have no access to banks credits or no regular income. However it does not mean that the crisis has not hit Africa.
It has now been exactly four months since my arrival in Goma, Eastern DRC, in November as a Child Protection Trainee during the early stage of the emergency response launched by Save the Children. The security situation has improved in North Kivu Province over the past two months but it remains highly volatile and there is a lot of uncertainty about the political future.
In Rwanda the major rainy season occurs from February through May. The rains are heaviest in the western and north western mountain regions. In the northern district of Burera it rained almost every day during the week Nic and I were there to shoot a video film on Save the Children’s health programme in Rwanda, from February 6 to February 15.
You could see it from your doorway, across the street, metres from your house, newly painted yellow. Two bright built blocks: a health centre. Beyond, volcanoes national park – a huge mountain clouded in mist, a volcano now sleeping.
Alphonsine has nothing. I’m in her house. It’s a cave. It’s pitch black inside. There are no windows.
The views and information in the blogs and comments are those of the individual contributors and not those of Save the Children UK. We do not guarantee or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or information contained in the blogs or comments. We do not accept any liability for loss or damage arising from the use of or reliance on any content that is accessed through, or downloaded from the blogs and comments pages.
Blog comments are submitted automatically; we do not edit them. But we reserve the right to remove any comment that we believe contains material that is obscene, offensive, inflammatory, defamatory of any person or entity, or that is otherwise illegal or inappropriate. If you wish to report a comment for any reason, email us at webeditor@savethechildren.org.uk
