Another batch of over 1,600 people this week graduated from Iwawa Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Centre on Iwawa Island, in the middle of Lake Kivu in Rutsiro District.

The centre is not just any school; its tenants are social misfits who were a nuisance to society; most of them drug addicts and substance abusers.

To be taken to Iwawa Island is like going to the edge of the world. It is situated right in the middle of Lake Kivu and accessing it is only by water.

The place is so isolated that insurgents used it as a base in the mid-90s as they thought it to be impregnable but it was breached by members of the Rwanda Defence Force in what was an epic battle.

Today Iwawa is run by the National Rehabilitation Services (NRS) and to date, it has accommodated and rehabilitated close to 20,000 people.

It is not only a drug rehabilitation centre, but it also offers vocational training such as tailoring, carpentry, construction and agriculture. Most of its wards are former street children and petty thieves with no skills, so once they leave the island they are at least equipped with a skill and have a chance to start on a clean slate.

The school has played a great role in bringing people back on the right path but those who run it don’t do justice to its reputation.

To many, it is a detention centre where parents toss their unruly children to get them off their hands, but it does much more than that.

NRS should make it a point to follow up on its former wards to see how they are faring and keep as close to them as possible. 

But most important of all, it should showcase success stories where its former tenants are now upright members of society.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com