On Saturday, the 905 youth graduated from the Centre after undergoing rehabilitation and imparted with vocational skills in; agriculture, carpentry, tailoring and driving.
Speaking to the graduates, the Governor of the Western Province, Alphonse Munyentwari told them to take advantage of the life chances they got through courses and trainings at Iwawa.
“Completing these courses and graduating here is a milestone you should consider as highly valuable. It is like a friendship pact you signed with the nation and the value you earned from this centre should not be underrated. Please do not disappoint your country and make it lose its dignity which is also yours,” Munyentwari advised the youth.
Eric Gasore, one of the graduates, says, he lived a street life before he was taken to Iwawa for rehabilitation. He says the time he spent at Iwawa is of great value as it helped him change his mind-set and got his life a meaning. He appealed to government to support them with start-up tool kits as they return back to families and while they look for jobs.
He also reveals that some of his fellow graduates have no families and identification which could make them be arrested again and taken back to Iwawa.
“We would like to ask the government officials to help some among us who have no identification documents to get them as quickly as possible because some of us were brought here as a result of having no identity cards and please help us create our own jobs,” said Gasore.
Aime Bosenibamwe, the Director General of the National Rehabilitation Services (NRS), promised the graduates that those who had already given their identification details and photographed, will be helped to get the ID cards as soon as possible.
“The ID cards problem will be resolved as quickly as possible. We invited your district officials to be here so that they can act on it quickly.We talked to the Minister of Local Governance and those who were photographed can get the ID cards after you leave this centre,” Bosenibamwe told the graduates.
Besides 905 youths who graduated as part of the 16th graduation, some other 3,042 are currently undergoing rehabilitation along with vocational training.
Statistics from National Rehabilitation Services indicate that to date, 16,911 youths have been rehabilitated and graduated from Iwawa Rehabilitation Centre. Among them, 7,249 youths were trained in literacy and numeracy program, adult education, among other subjects.
Iwawa Rehabilitation Centre accomodates male deliquents of over 18 years old men who exhibit deviant behaviors for rehabilitation. NRS defines a deviant behavior as actions or bad behaviors which are harmful to to the public such as prostitution, drug abuse, begging, vagrancy, informal street vending, among others.
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