Kimironko: Peace and Hope Initiative launches Skills for Life Project for 70 needy and Persons with Disabilities

Peace and Hope Initiative is implementing the Project entitled “Equip Children and Women beggars as well as Persons with Disabilities with Skills for Life” to empower targeted beneficiaries to become self-reliant rather than begging.

The one-year project is starting with 70 beneficiaries among them are 35 beggars and 35 persons with disabilities selected from three cells of Kimironko Sector of Gasabo District in the City of Kigali.

“This is a project we have worked on with the Rwanda Governance Board and UNDP with the aim of empowering beneficiaries through skills for life training and also empowering them by creating profitable opportunities as well in the education of their children.” Explained Musabyimana Albert, Founder and legal representative of Peace and Hope Initiative which is implementing the project.

Initially the project will last for a year starting with 70 beneficiaries including people with disabilities and beggars.

Musabyimana says the project aims to restore the value of these families by helping them, bringing their children back to schools and through other planned development activities.

“We thought about this project when we found that these people are beggars and have girls while others have different types of disabilities” he said.

“Having children and being helpless, this results into deception leading to premature pregnancies among their girl children. And then you will find that the girl has given birth, the one she gave birth to also goes to beg, and so on! Then we asked ourselves how this will end if we don’t find answer today?” He explains.

The project is being implemented in Kimironko sector after getting support from RGB and UNDP as a preliminary study had revealed that there were many beggars there.

As part of the of the project, on Tuesday, October 13th, 2020, the first workshop for the beneficiaries of the project was held at Kimironko sector office in order to first prepare them and change their mindset and begging behavior.

Musabyimana said: “We think that once we change them, we will start preparing them for profitable projects as per the project plan. »

“We want to have a clean city. So, we cannot have Clean City with people begging on the street. This project will help us to have a better city but which is inhabited by healthy people.” He added

Activities planned for the project include the mushrooms cultivation project, the payment of school fees for their children, connecting their businesses to potential clients, giving them Health Insurance as well as enabling them to become self-reliant through job creation among other initiatives.

Jeanne d’Arc Uwamahoro in charge of Social Affairs in Kimironko says the project comes to support Kimironko’s social programs adding that Peace and Hope Initiative is well-placed to implement the project since it was well developed after doing an assessment on socio-economic conditions among the project beneficiaries

“It is true that in Gasabo district, especially in Kimironko sector, we have various donors who come to improve the lives of the people,” she said.

“So, when we see such a partner, we are very happy because we have categories of vulnerable people who need support to be able to rise.” She says

Uwamahoro added that as a sector, they are also working closely with Peace and Hope Initiative to speed up the implementation of the requirements to make the project a success.

“So, we cannot give up on a partner who comes to support our vulnerable people. But we look at the plans they have given us and make sure that they are implemented properly.” Uwamahoro explains.

On the side of beneficiaries, they said that they are ready to follow the advice they will be given and to follow the charted path to their own development.

One of them said, “We really don’t go begging because we want to. Many of us are struggling with financial hardship in families. Like me I have a mentally ill child. I took him to the doctor several times but he never recovered. In addition to his mental illness we don’t have means and getting a ticket to the doctor is also a problem. We want these donors to help us and make it possible for someone to be able to do something that is profitable so that we can solve the problems ourselves rather than relying on begging.”

The Peace and Hope Initiative is an organization that aims to improve the well-being of its beneficiaries through advocacy and entrepreneurship as well as enabling children have access to education.

Initially, the organization was launched to help children born to the orphans of the Genocide against the Tutsi living in Kinyinya sector where it was founded.

The Organization has set up Peace and Hope Academy which provides education to children from poor families.

So, this project is going to help the disadvantaged in Kimironko sector making this another philanthropical project for the needy so that they too can succeed.

Albert Musabyimana, founder of the Peace and Hope Initiative, says that if the project is successful, there will be discussions with donors to see if it can be extended to other beneficiaries as the number of people in need is still high.

He thanked the RGB and UNDP for their support to this project which started with 70 beneficiaries and assured them that the project agreements will be implemented effectively.

By Ange de la Victoire DUSABEMUNGU