EDITOR,

I was impressed by the article about what Iwawa vocational training centre is doing in the lives of the youth there. 

As I read, I couldn’t help but speculate on the impact of the seemingly unimportant courses that have already served as a laughing stock and faced ridicule by some well known newspapers like the New York Times that likened the Iwawa centre to Alcatraz prison.

Honestly, no one cares that much about the helpless youth on the downtown streets of New York, take a stroll there and you would be so lucky if you escaped without a scathe.

Rather than leave a country’s youth to rowdily roam and indulge in drugs and petty crimes, Rwanda’s government has taken a step further and ventured into something that would see the empowerment of Rwanda’s youth.

Such a vision is what the country needs if the youth are to take part in the development of the country.

Critics or no critics, the fact that these youth at Iwawa Island are benefiting from these technical skills and lessons only prove that the motive of their presence at Iwawa Island is simply correctional rather than repressive.

This is a perfect example of the ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’ proverb—something that unfortunately these critics have never understood.

Kigali