The National Commission for Children (NCC) is looking for new ways to address the challenge of integrating orphans who have reached adulthood into foster families.

NCC has been endeavouring to have all children in orphanages throughout the country join foster families, but finds it difficult resettling those who clock the age of 18.

The law does not allow orphans aged 18 and above to stay in orphanages, which government has been phasing out in the last two years.

Zaina Nyiramatama, the executive secretary of NCC, said through programmes such as Hanga Umurimo (create own job) and Business Development Fund (BDF), among others, they support such children to integrate in society through job creation.

"We group them in cooperatives in conjunction with the Ministry of ICT and Youth through local officials to help them to run businesses in daily life,” Nyiramatama said.

She was responding to concerns of grown-up orphans in orphanages, some of whom end up escaping.

Nyiramatama said the programme is in line with Rwandan cultural values where every child belongs to a family and needs support, including skills development.

She said support helps children to develop into responsible citizens, strengthen their confidence and vision to be self-reliant and be able to defend their rights.

Handling challenges

Nyiramatama noted that their survey indicates that educating children in orphanages is so expensive compared to what a child needs in families.

Recommendations from the 7th Children’s Summit held in Kigali in 2011 expressed compassion for the children in orphanages, suggesting that they needed to grow up in families.

Some orphans have previously complained of hard conditions in orphanages, with some escaping from the centres.

Jean Pierre Hakizimana said he escaped due to suffering.

"I rarely had two meals a day, many times I lived on porridge. This even pushed me to steal cassava in neighbouring farms to survive,” he said.

A group of about 40 scattered around Kigali claim there was no support for them as they are aged 18.

However, officials say they had just learnt of the challenge two months ago and are trying to help them form cooperative to get support under initiatives such as Hanga Umurimo and BDF.

"We have received their business proposal and are helping them to get business plan so that their cooperative is registered. It is a particular cooperative coming to help those orphans without clear origin that will be facilitated in any way,” Vincent Rwigamba, the youth coordinator in Kacyiru Sector, Gasabo District, said.

"We are also looking for sponsorship as their project is big. I hope by the end of November, we will have completed the process.”

The government has extended the deadline to phase out orphanages to 2016.

Among the 4,147 children in different orphanages, more than 2,137 have been reintegrated into families.