Parents and guardians with children at Iwawa Rehabilitation and Vocational Skills Development Centre (IRVSDC), will visit their children at the Rutsiro District-based island, from April 8.

Charles Kabanda, the Coordinator of the Parents-Guardian Committee, confirmed this yesterday in an interview with The New Times.

"We agreed to form groups of parents and guardians, who will be visiting in shifts every weekend effective April 8,” Kabanda said in a telephone interview.

This comes following the parents’ request to visit their children before they graduate next month.

A total of 1,069 students (first batch) out of 1,653 at the centre are scheduled to graduate late April after undergoing a one-year skills course.

The vocational centre offers five vocational courses; carpentry, commercial farming and bee keeping. Others are tailoring and construction. It also offers English and Swahili language lessons.

"This is an opportunity for us as parents to interact with our children. It’s an opportunity for us to remedy relationships,” Kabanda added.

 "As parents we believe this is time to welcome our children in their new life,” Kabanda said.

He explained that the 13-man committee of parents and guardians, which was elected, will also bring together all parents, especially those who did not attend last weekend’s meeting.

"This will help us in organizing periodic meetings to look for ways of helping the children once they graduate,” he said.

The committee, Kabanda said, will also help to bring together children for counseling, follow up on their activities in the reintegration process and help them to form cooperative societies.

"We were also requested to give our views after visiting the centre on how it can be improved,” he noted.

Nicolas Niyongabo, the Coordinator of the vocational centre, confirmed that the government will contribute to the transport costs.

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