Through the work of our partners we have helped provide support for tens of thousands of survivors as they work to rebuild their lives left shattered by the genocide.
We help create opportunities for survivors to earn an income, to access health care and counselling, to receive an education or get decent housing in the hope they can increase not only their standard of living but their sense of self worth.
We not only support survivors but also children born of rape and other vulnerable groups such as the dependants of women widowed in the genocide.
Some of our recent projects include providing counselling, microfinance and technical and vocational training to 9,000 vulnerable school leavers to help them improve their lives.
The project is being implemented by our partner AERG (National Student’s Association of
Genocide Survivors) and has been funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
Since April, with our partner AVEGA Agahozo we’ve been running a survivors’ empowerment project for survivors who are HIV positive.
The project helps widows to create small businesses, while providing with them psychological support and reproductive health education to their dependants. Funded by Comic Relief, the project is projected to improve the lives of 1,181 people.
These kind of projects produce many individual success stories, particularly women survivors who are rebuilding their lives through income-generating projects we have supported.
They are helping not only themselves, but creating job opportunities for other survivors as well.
And most importantly, by becoming self-sufficient we are giving dignity back to survivors.
Such as in the case of Jeanette Mukayiranga:
“Since I joined the entrepreneurship training, my life has changed a lot. I’ve started a small business, selling Tigo phone credit and mobile money services. I don’t earn a lot of money yet, but it’s growing and I have some regular customers. I’m proud that I’m already able to contribute a little to the savings of our group. When our group has saved more money, I want to take a small loan to expand my business and start selling other items as well. What I enjoy most is that, when I need something now, I’m able to buy it myself and don’t have to ask someone to give it to me. That makes me feel so proud!”