Jeannine Gahongayire is a widow from Nyamirama Sector of Kayonza District in Eastern Province. In addition to her six children, she is fostering a son she rescued in 2011 after being dumped by his mother. The boy is now 8 years old. “In the evening, old women who were my neighbours came to me with a one-month-old baby they had rescued from where he had been dumped in a banana plantation. The baby was in critical condition and I accepted to foster it,” she said. She said that she ordered for milk from her neighbour, a baby bottle, clothes and other hygiene materials for the baby. “The nurse came and vaccinated him. The nurse also helped me to get milk for six months,” she said. She said that so far no one knows the whereabouts of the biological mother. “I later enrolled him in nursery school and completed it. He is now in P2,” she recounted. The 61-year-old Gahongayire is one of the mothers who have been trained by SOS Children’s Village Rwanda on parental care under a three-year programme dubbed “Family Strengthening Programme”. “We were trained on how to provide parental care to the children we are fostering. I was also given Rwf175,000 as financial support for starting small income-generating activities,” she said. Annonciata Mukakinani also fostered the child rescued after being dumped near a dam in 2013. “We rescued the baby boy close to a nearby dam five days after being born. He was not even covered with any cloth. Everyone was reluctant to receive the baby,” Mukakinani said. “We were trained in parental care. I am in the process of registering him as my child. He is studying and he will soon join Nursery 3,” she said. Caritas Uwizeye, an official in charge of social affairs in Nyamirama sector, said that family conflicts, lack of parental responsibility, teen pregnancies, loss of parents are among factors triggering street children. She said that they set up Child Protection Committees at sector and cell levels where they have returned 75 dropout children back to school adding that there are 88 families fostering children. Élisée Ngendahimana, the representative of Inshuti z’Umuryango (family friend) in Ruramira sector, said that in his village there were 14 families in conflicts whom they are supporting to reconcile. “We set up a savings group and supported 25 vulnerable children to return to school,” he said. Dieudonne Munyankiko in charge of alternative care at SOS Village Rwanda said that alternative care looks at children who lacked parental care either those without parents or those at risk of losing them. Under the family strengthening programme, some children are fostered in families. “Children are adopted and we follow their daily lives. We help the family to afford needs such as education, decent housing, income-generating projects and others,” he said. The programme is helping 50 children who lost parental care and joined 38 foster care or kinship care families in Nyamirama, Ruramira and Mukarange sectors of Kayonza District.
