US students pledge to support street children

A group of 18 visiting students from the United States has pledged to solicit support to move children off the streets.The team has been in the country since July 9, on a summer youth peace and cultural education program; aimed at enabling US students and their Rwandan counterparts to share and promote peace and culture under a programme organised by Afri-peace development foundation-USA.“As a student who clearly understands the need for even other children to be at school, we have agreed that we must work together to bring other people on board in supporting children to get off the streets, and probably join schools,” said Patrick Talamantes, head of the delegation.A peace education student at Sacramento Country Day School in California, he noted that promoting peace and culture, among others, is easy, especially when the population is well educated.“There is urgent need to fight causes that may or lead to children ending up in streets,” he said.Among others, he said drug abuse, abandonment and peer groups or influences, are among the major causes of children hitting the streets.During their visit, the students visited major educational, cultural and historical sites in various parts of the country, including in Kigali, Huye, Rwamagana, Rulindo, Nyanza, Musanze, and Gisenyi.The team also performed community services with Genocide survivors and visited centres for street children as well as orphanages in Nyanza, Rwamagana, and Rulindo districts.William Nyiridandi, the Director of Streets Ahead Children’s Centre Association (SACCA), a local NGO operating in Kayonza District, commended the students’ initiative saying the move will contribute to the current government programme of integrating children in their respective families.“We have so far integrated 120 children from our centre into their respective families and currently, we are still identifying families for the 80 children remaining in the centre,” said Nyiridandi.The government is implementing a programme that will see all orphanages phased out and children integrated in homes, as well as putting in place measures to have children off the streets.

National

US students pledge to support street children