Since 2013, 3,151 out of 3,323 children living in 33 orphanages have safely been placed into family based care through the ‘Tubarere Mu Muryango’ program /Let’s Raise Children in the Family (TMM), implemented by the Government of Rwanda in partnership with UNICEF and different NGOs with financial support from USAID.

The TMM program is a national program that was established to implement the Strategy for National Child Care Reform (2012). The Strategy originated from children of Rwanda, during the 7th National Children’s Summit in early 2012, when they stated their wish to see every child in Rwanda growing up in a loving and protective family. Thus, the Government of Rwanda made a strong commitment to transform Rwanda’s child care and protection system into a family-based system of care. The Strategy details how children living in institutions should regain their right to be raised in a safe and supportive family environment and is grounded in Rwandan culture.

Culturally, Rwanda has a strong traditional system of care founded on the tradition of treating every child as your own. For a long time, the community (grandparents, aunts, uncles and community volunteers) has been caring for vulnerable children.

The existence of this traditional response to vulnerable children is an incredible foundation from which to develop social services and programming efforts which support different types of family-based care options to provide a safe and supportive environment for children rather than living in institutions/orphanages affecting them. Institutionalization affects the mental and emotional development of children, specifically their quality of life, due to a lack of the love of a family.

Hence, all children had to be moved from institutions and be reintegrated into family-based care and supported to grow up within the love of a family, following a careful process of child assessment, family tracing and assessment, preparation, support, monitoring and child protection system strengthening. This is the context in which TMM Program was initiated.

Thanks to the TMM program, 3,151 children have been placed into family-based care. Twenty-five orphanages have stopped institutional care services and are gradually being transformed into community-based services that benefit children and their families. All the children living in orphanages have been placed into family-based care. These orphanages are among the 33 orphanages surveyed by the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF) in partnership with Hope and Homes for Children in 2012 and an additional four orphanages identified after the survey. The survey revealed that 3,323 children and young adults were living in the 33 orphanages. However, there were four additional orphanages identified after the survey which were taking care of 614 children and   adults. This increased the number of children and young adults living in orphanages to 3,937 from 3,323 identified by the survey.

Reintegrating children living in orphanages into protective family-based care is an entry point to building a sustainable child care and protection system. With the deployment of 68 professional social workers and psychologists to districts from 2013 to March 2018 as well as the establishment of 29,674 family and child protection volunteers known as ‘Inshuti z’Umuryango’/IZUs (Friends of the Family) in every village, the TMM program is achieving a lot. This human resource pillar of the child protection system not only contributes to safe reintegration of children without appropriate parental care, but also responds to the needs of Rwandan children and families through household visits by effectively identifying child maltreatment and referring cases to social services as appropriate which reduces violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and all other forms of child maltreatment in communities.

In addition, NCC received the handover of the ‘Malayika Mulinzi’ which means ‘Guardian Angels’ (long-term and emergency foster care) initiative from Imbuto Foundation and has since identified, assessed and accredited 1,440 more ‘Malayika Mulinzi’ to ensure children in orphanages without known family and abandoned ones get families to care for them.

Six hundred twenty-nine out of the 3,151 reintegrated children have been reunited with their biological families, 1,467 children have been placed in extended families, 522 children have been placed in foster families ‘Malayika Mulinzi’, 441 in independent living, 26 in Community Based Living  (CBL), while 66 have been adopted.

Azadis Sekamana is one of ‘Malayika Murinzi’. He lives in Ngoma district with his wife Devothe Uwineza, their two biological children and an 11-year old boy they fostered from Home of Joy orphanage.  While introducing himself, Sekamana confirms confidently that he is a father of three children.  According to him, the TMM Program has revived orphans’ and abandoned children’s hope of living.

"The family is the best option for the effective physical and emotional development of children. So, reintegrating children living in institutions/orphanages into family-based care is a success itself. In addition, TMM professional social workers and psychologists do adequate child and family assessment before placing children and conduct regular post-placement follow-ups to ensure that families are capable of looking after the children they receive.  Briefly, there was a great need to protect and revive the hope of living for children from orphanages and abandoned children. I’m confident that the TMM Program is doing it well,” he explains

Impressed by the way Sekamana’s family fosters the child, the neighbors see him as a role model in the whole community. "Sekamana and his wife are a very good example of responsible parents. The child is enjoying the rights he could not find in any orphanage,” said Louis Gahamanyi, one of the neighbors.

With such successes, the TMM Program has attracted people’s attention from countries in the region and beyond who have visited Rwanda to learn from the TMM Program’s best practices.  

"Rwanda has made tremendous achievements in promoting family-based care. We want to learn from its system that prevents family separation and reintegrates children from orphanages into family-based care,” said Irene Mureithi, the Chief Executive Officer of Child Welfare Society of Kenya, who, with a 10-person delegation, visited TMM activities in May 2017.

A member of the Kenyan delegation (with a black bag) shaking hands with Malayika Murinzi in Bugesera District. May 2017.

Also, during the celebration of the International Day of Girl Child in Kirehe District on October 11, 2017, Mr. Fodé Ndiaye, the UN Resident Coordinator to Rwanda, commended TMM achievements. "To ensure that all children in Rwanda are raised in families and that families have the means to nurture and protect children, Tubarerere mu Muryango was launched. The TMM program has re-integrated over 2,900 children from orphanages into families. This success can be attributed to the deployment of a professional social workforce at the sub-national levels who have been trained to work with families and communities. Our commitment should be to continue to expand the social workforce and build their skills to identify children at risk, and prevent, respond or refer them for their protection,” he pointed out.

While addressing the Global First Ladies Alliance gathered in New York in September 2017, the First Lady, Jeannette Kagame, told her counterparts from across the world that the Rwandan mechanism to reintegrate children living in orphanages into family-based care is a success. "The reintegration of thousands orphans into foster or an adoptive family was a success thanks to country’s tradition of recognizing a child as a responsibility of the whole society.”

The First Lady commended ‘Malayika Murinzi’ for their role in creating a protective environment for children without appropriate care, by promoting adoption and foster care. "We made the decision to publicly recognize these men and women for their acts, in order to encourage others to do the same, and reignite the cultural flame of responsibility towards children and the most vulnerable.”

Despite the tremendous achievements there is still a lot to do. This is why, as an overall child rights protection and promotion interveners’ coordinating entity in Rwanda, the National Commission for Children (NCC), reiterates its commitment to continue strengthening the whole child protection system, especially the operationalization of "Inshuti z’Umuryango (IZU).” 

"We are strongly committed to operationalize "Inshuti z’Umuryango.” Their services must be harmonized and standardized to keep their focus on child protection. I therefore believe that it is vital to build a strong and well-coordinated mechanism to know who is doing what with IZU. For this reason, anyone willing to work with IZU must have a certain accreditation and comply with the IZU Operationalization Guidelines,” said NCC Executive Secretary, Dr. Claudine Uwera Kanyamanza.

IZU operationalization will be done through reinforcing the ongoing capacity-building of all actors in the child protection system at the community level, including local leaders, to ensure strong prevention of child protection issues and appropriate care and services for children and families in need.

For this purpose, in collaboration with UNICEF and other partners, NCC has conducted local leaders training on child protection, which targeted all local leaders from District to Village level including the Vice Mayor in charge of social affairs, nine other officials at the District, the officers in charge of civil registration, notaries of all sectors, the officers in charge of social affairs of all Sectors, all cell Executive Secretaries and village leaders. This training will be followed by IZU in-service training which is also scheduled in this fiscal year.

In addition, through TMM Program NCC will support the reintegration of children with disability through an inclusive child protection system and will continue placing 755 remaining children and young adults who still live in institutions, increase awareness on child protection within the community by using mass media, community outreach activities and social media as well as intensifying campaigns to mobilize more ‘Malayika Mulinzi.’