Where do graduates from Iwawa Rehabilitation Centre go? What happens if they don’t have welcoming homes to go back to? Don’t they risk going back to the streets, at the comfort of their old habits, if by lack of chance they don’t find jobs, or rather employers who are ready to bet on their transformation story? Iwawa Rehabilitation Centre receives former drug addicts and alcoholics, sometimes orphaned and homeless young men, most of whom were street children. It has been seen that those who graduate from their rehabilitation program, often have a hard time reintegrating back into society. Whether it’s stigmatization or self-isolation, they know too well that help does not end within the walls of the centre, just to later be sent back in the society on their own. “Sometimes you really want to change, but the rest of the community, even your own family, doesn’t believe it. Sometimes you’ve really healed and moved on, or you tire from trying to convince people or you weren’t even completely strong enough to stand on your own without your people’s support, or other times you’re really on your own with no family to stay strong for,” shared Niyonsaba, 2017 graduate from Iwawa rehabilitation Centre. The recounted is something very much common for former sex workers. “Whether sex work was a personal choice, trying to make easy money, or you were hoodwinked into sexual exploitation by someone else; it is not easy to close this chapter of your life. People will always view you as a prostitute no matter where you go to church, how you dress or any other effort you may make to look decent,” shared Afisa Uwamahoro, member of Ihorere Rwanda Association of former commercial sex workers. The likes of Niyonsaba and Uwamahoro only need someone to believe in them. They need a second chance. For instance, Niyonsaba is one of the over 500 young men who were rehabilitated having been street kids, delinquents, and drug addicts for a long time. Then were taken under Hopethiopia’s wings upon graduation, to be provided with a home, counseling and financially facilitated to integrate back into the society. Hopethiopia, founded by Glenda Dubienski and her husband Ralph Dubienski, Canadian nationals, is a non-governmental organization that offer educational, physical, social, emotional, economic and spiritual support to the orphaned and homeless young men and women, most of whom were street children, and including those with acute or chronic, mental and physical illnesses. Having struggled with an alcoholic brother herself and being a counsellor by profession, Glenda Dubienski dubbed ‘Mama Iwawa’, understood too well that such people needed more than a program to really change their lives. “They just need a leap of faith. Not to constantly be reminded what they were the other time. And most importantly, not to be put in the same situations as what led them to these habits in the first place,” she said. As any other person, they will be happy to stay in a society where they feel relevant and needed, Dubienski noted. Gahanga in Kicukiro district, being the location of their (Iwawa graduates’) resident, Hopethiopia brought dentists from Canada to offer free dentistry services at Gahanga Hospital to the public.
