For children on the street, the story is always familiar - abusive parents, conflict with stepparents, lack of money for school fees, being forced to work to support older siblings, not getting the clothes they want. Equally common are the children who have been driven from their homes, and those who have no home. In this respect, Rwandan street children are nothing special: which is exactly how they feel.
The boys hang around the taxi-bus stations, steal in the market, beg from passers by. They do small jobs to earn their daily food, and spend what little they get on sweets and drugs. The girls walk the streets during the sunlight hours, waiting to be approached. After dark, it’s a little more organised, and they sell as much as they can of all they have to offer: themselves.
All any of the children really want is food, shelter, love, the chance of an education, somewhere to feel secure, and hope for the future. On the street, they are on their own: treated as social outcasts, they spurn the moral codes society requires and suffer the consequences in defiance and fear.
Every child deserves the chance to be good and to be a child. They just need someone to believe in them. We do, and we are delighted that you share our belief in these children and their future.
Sponsoring children offers them some stability. It means that whatever else may happen, the child is provided for. After living with the uncertainties of the street, having security - knowing where the next meal is coming from, being able to trust in someone and something - allows the children to relax and be what they really are: children.
Whilst any support you can give is invaluable to our children, we hope that you will feel able to sponsor a child for a year or more. The children we help all have different needs that change and develop as they progress through our programme. A child may start on our core programme, coming to the centre on a daily basis to wash, learn and eat and then, when ready, go to school or commit to some form of training.
Should you decide to sponsor one of our children, we will keep you informed of the developments in your child’s life, sending you regular reports, photographs and updates on the child’s progress. The children themselves are more than happy to write about how their lives are changing, their latest football prowess, traditional dance competition or how they did in the end of term exams. We promise a high level of contact, and hope that you will come to care about your child as much as we do.
The level of sponsorship you provide is up to you. Different groups of children have different requirements according to whether they are on our core programme, at school, or in vocational training. However, all children have the same basic needs: food, water, clothes, and medical treatment. These are the core costs that allow us to give the children the basic support from which to change their behaviour.
This is the most basic level of support that we can give the children. It is what we offer as an immediate step off the street. It is an initial programme in itself and the basis of anything further that we do, providing the children with a sense of security from which they can do their best to change their behaviour and standard of living.
For some children, this is all that is suitable at present. We provide the basic care that that they need, teach them ourselves, allow them to change at their own speed, and prepare them to progress onto further, more formal schooling or training when they are ready. Your support includes food and health costs, bedding and basic schoolbooks, as well as identity card costs should the child so need.
£144 per year £12 per month
In Rwanda, as in the rest of the world, schooling is vastly important. Education is the key to escaping poverty, the benefit being not only the child’s education, but the huge boost to their self-esteem, their change in behaviour, and their acceptance into normal society. Having a beige uniform and going off to school with the other pupils is vitally significant to our children. Our nineteen year olds happily walk off into Primary One with our twelve year olds. In class, the street children blend in; they are no longer outside, different and looked down on by everyone else. They are offered a chance.
The additional cost of sending a child to primary school includes school uniform, books, pens and school fees – with a small amount extra for school trips and other costs. Secondary schools in Rwanda are all boarding, the cost of sponsoring a secondary school student reflects this.
Primary school: £160 per year £13 per month
Secondary school: £315 per year £26 per month
Our main aim in working with the children is to make them independent, both emotionally and financially. We offer them the chance to succeed in the belief that with support, they can fulfil their potential. A number of the older boys for whom school is not suitable are currently enrolled in formal or informal vocational training.
If the boys can read and write to a reasonable level, are responsible and capable of following a highly structured course content, we find places for them in vocational schools. These train the boys in a profession, giving them skills that will later find them a job, and provide them with a full qualification. The main extra costs of this are college fees, books, equipment, uniforms and materials.
However, many of the boys were on the street for years and never had a chance to learn to write and find structured study difficult to sustain. We enrol these children on informal training courses with local tradesmen. The principle extra costs with these children are training fees, materials and tools.
Formal training: £300 per year £25 per month
Informal training: £234 per year £19.50 per month
Unable to survive by carrying loads or doing other manual work, most street girls are forced to turn to prostitution. They are vulnerable to rape and HIV, and the community shuns them. Their problems are complex, accentuated by babies, illness, and their hidden position in society.
By sponsoring a girl you provide the support she needs to be able to take care of her children herself – and prevent them becoming the next generation of children on the street. Your donation provides all the basics plus assistance towards house rent and mutuelle (local health insurance) in addition.
£231 per year £19 per month
Given their backgrounds, most of our children are remarkably well adjusted; however two currently require special assistance.
Suleiman (15) has epilepsy. Prior to joining SACCA, Suleiman was ‘kept’ by a group of old men who amused themselves by plying him with alcohol and watching his drunken antics. Abandoned by his extended family following the death of his parents, and a chronic alcoholic by the age of ten, Suleiman scraped a living begging, and capering for others’ amusement. Although he has successfully weaned himself from his addiction to alcohol, Suleiman’s chronic epilepsy means he needs constant monitoring, drugs and loving attention. His harsh childhood has left him with the physical stature of a small child and the mental capacity to match. The price of his essential epilepsy medicine increases the cost of sponsoring Suleiman to £168 each year, or £14 each month.
Mukunzi (15) began to act strangely aged seven at which point his father disowned both him and his mother, saying the child was mad, and he couldn’t possibly have fathered someone so ugly. Mukunzi prefers to roam the streets, begging for food, than remain at home where his mother does not have time to give him the attention he requires. This itinerant habit puts Mukunzi at risk of frequent beatings and his feet have been permanently damaged by a particularly vicious knife attack. His behaviour is often socially unacceptable/ inappropriate but we truly feel that this is predominantly learnt rather than inherent, with an origin in extreme attention-seeking and the need to play the jester in order to obtain something to eat.
A dedicated caregiver could focus his attention towards routines for personal hygiene and daily life as well as developing his love of mimicry and drawing into functional numeracy and literacy. It would enable us to strengthen the relationship he has with his mother (whom he visits frequently) by encouraging him to spend each weekend with her after being at SACCA’s Kayonza centre during the week. The salary for such a caregiver would increase the cost of sponsorship for Mukunzi to £168 each year, or £14 each month.
Our project would never function without the dedication, enthusiasm and sheer hard work of our amazing staff. We don’t like to include our salaries or admin. costs in the child sponsorship calculations, feeling you would prefer your donation to go directly to supporting the children. However, salaries do need to be paid, and administration to be done, and without the staff there would be no-one to run the centres! So, we’ve calculated the cost of actually running our three centres, and, with an average of 30 children per centre, worked out what each child’s share of that would be. We invite you to help us help the children by contributing to the project in this way.
£120 per year £10 per month
Some of our children: Emmanuel (13) came onto the street by accident almost- orphaned before the Genocide and cared for by a neighbour afterwards, a friend suggested they leave home and Emmanuel followed, spending the three subsequent years wandering around. He is small and sweet, always wanting attention and to talk to you. Nothing makes him happier than ‘mending’ his radio in the office, or learning French with one of the teachers. He works hard at primary school and came 12th out of 59 at the end of his first year at primary school.
Nshimiye Robot in Rwamagana is approximately 13. His first memory is of standing alone in a running crowd as soldiers cleared the refugee camp where he presumes he lived. His behaviour can be erratic and emotional, fuelled by years on the street and the need to survive. He is stridently independent but secretly craves attention and love. He has made incredible progress since joining our project, even with his occasional relapses. He is now studying in the first year of primary school.
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We are happy to provide detailed breakdowns of how we have calculated the costs for child sponsorship: if you are interested please do not hesitate to ask.
