Social Issue

One of the most devastating consequences of the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994 was the almost one million orphans that it left behind. If we add this to the AIDS problem, the outlook is devastating. Today, there are 100,000 families that are headed by a child. No adults. No fathers or mothers. Children, often as young as 9 years old, have to look after their younger brothers and sisters, subsisting in extreme poverty by cultivating a small plot of land or working for neighbours. In these conditions going to school is a dream and they do not have the basic and essential information required for life that they would have received from their parents.

Our Response

The project consists of distributing radios that do not need batteries, as these are impossible to buy and find, so that children receive practical information on health, cultivation methods, food in general, human rights, and school education.

The donation of radios goes alongside a programme implemented in the country that tracks or tutors orphaned children, carried out by Nkundabanas. These are adults from the same community that, after a week’s training, are given five families of orphaned children to look after, which they visit at least once per week.

One of the programmes that is most popular with the children and of great emotional value is the radio series Urunana, which deals with a wide range of day to day social issues and teaches the most basic human values to children whilst providing a great sense of security and emotional comfort. The emotional link between the characters in the radio series and the children is such that many children consider them as second parents due to the amount of things that they teach and the way they do so.

Expected Social Impact

It seems incredible that an item as simple as a radio can change a person’s life, not only due to the usefulness of the information that it can provide but also due to the emotional damage that it can help to heal.

Each radio is awarded to a specific child, although ten children listen to it on average, either in the field, tilling the land, or meeting at one of their homes.

This donation will benefit around 10,000 children.