First Lady Jeannette Kagame and her Benin counterpart, Mrs Claudine Talon, visited the Isange One Stop Centre and Imbuto Foundation’s project – Family Package, at Kacyiru Hospital, in Kigali, on 8 November 2016.

The visit to the centre aimed at giving Mrs Talon an insight of what it offers in terms of free-of-charge comprehensive services to gender-based violence victims.

The services provided by the centre include, psychosocial, medical, police and legal services to adult and child survivors of gender based violence and child abuse occurring in the family or in the community at large.

Mrs Talon arrived in Kigali on Monday and she is expected to conclude her working visit to Rwanda on Friday.

Mrs Talon is expected to take part in various activities around Imbuto Foundation’s diverse programmes in health, education and socio-economic empowerment, according to a communiqué from the Office of the First Lady of Rwanda.

While visiting the Family Package activities, Mrs Talon was briefed on how the initiative –formed in 2002—has played a key role in prevention of Mother To Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) plus offering support to families infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, medical support psychosocial support, economic empowerment and peer education.

The Family Package services are offered in 27 health facilities in six districts and it has deployed about 540 peer educators to sensitise communities about HIV/AIDS as well as supporting 27 cooperatives of peer educators with 13,000 members.

The initiative also offers technical training to HIV+ mothers.

According to Monique Nyirambonyiyeze, 41, an HIV-positive mother of four, the centre has made it possible for her to have another "lease of life”.

Nyirambonyiyeze, a resident of Gasabo District, joined the Family Package project in 2007 after discovering that she was HIV+ and her third born had also been born with HIV.

"I and my child have been able to get free medication. Besides, I have also acquired tailoring skills which allow me to earn some money to support my family,” she says.

Under the Family Package project, Nyirambonyiyeze, and another 45 women operate a tailoring store and a canteen that feeds people visiting Kacyiru Hospital on a daily basis.

The produced textile —mainly school sweaters—is sold to the local market and the collected revenue is used to support projects for members who earn about Rwf60,000 per month each.

Initiated by Mrs Kagame, the Isange One Stop Centre is intended to complement national efforts in responding to and preventing Gender Based Violence (GBV).

Dr Daniel Nyamwasa, head of Kigali Forensic Laboratory, said centre receives about 10 people a day.

In 2014, First Lady Mrs Kagame launched the scale-up of Isange One Stop Centre in the Eastern Province - Nyagatare District to benefit more victims.

Mrs Talon also paid homage to victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi at Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre, Gisozi.

Together with Mrs Kagame, she is today expected to visit the Integrated Development Programme model village of Kayonza, Imbuto Foundation’s Early Childhood Development and Family Centre, and the Women for Women Opportunity Centre in the Eastern Province.

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