Category: UNICEF

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has inked a partnership with the National Agricultural Export Board (NAEB) on emphasizing the importance of promoting children’s rights in business practices particularly in tea industry.

During the signing of partnership agreement in Kigali on Tuesday, the two agencies committed to focus on key children priorities such as early childhood development, nutrition and health, among others.

Being under NAEB oversight, tea companies will collaborate to ensure the success of the agreement. Other government institutions including Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Ministry of Public Service and Labour, Ministry of Local Government will also help improve conditions affecting health and nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene practices and practical childcare options in tea growing areas.

Among Rwanda’s 15 tea factories and 19 cooperatives, factory and plantation are often parents or of reproductive age. Some of them are pregnant or breastfeeding women, putting children’s life at risk.

UNICEF’s Country Representative, Ted Maly, said the partnership with the government is paramount in advancing children’s rights and is optimistic on the success of the agreement through good engagement of tea factories.

“Businesses have a wide potential to impact children’s lives, which is why this partnership is so important. There is a growing awareness of corporate responsibility in Rwanda and our work with NAEB will be essential in integrating child rights into the tea industry,” said Maly.

Sandrine Urujeni, Deputy CEO of NAEB, said the initiative that started in tea industry will be expanded to other government and private institutions to ensure the welfare of mothers and children.

“NAEB works hand-in-hand with tea business owners and affiliated employees. One of our major responsibilities is to protect the rights of employees with a focus on children and women by advocating for improved work conditions. This partnership with UNICEF will result in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of tea workers, thus elevating their livelihoods and contribute to the sector’s growth,” she said.

Activities under the agreement will include stakeholder training on children’s rights and business principles, community outreach events and training to strengthen early childhood development and nutrition programmes around tea plantations.

At least 850 children have been set out of tea chores in the last two years and 520 among them have received vocational training in welding, tailoring, carpentry and more professions.

Most parents wonder about sports which are suitable for children, think that there are some they can do and other they should not while others think some sports are exclusively for boys and others for girls.

IGIHE has caught up with Alexis Siborurema, a trainer for physical exercises like gym and referee for basketball, who answered most of the questions people have about sports. Siborurema completed his sports-related studies at the former Kigali Institute of Education (KIE). The excerpts below explain it all:

IGIHE: Are there exclusive sports for children as it is often believed? If so, which are they?

Siborurema: Actually all sports can be practiced by children but at different levels depending on their age. For example, children below five years are too young to adapt to physical exercises which are guided by rules. At that age, they need sports which make them happy and strengthen their muscles. The sports include jogging, piling up objects, throwing balls, swimming, and more they can do as they please.

Sports for children between 6 and 9 years old

As a child grows up, they choose a vision and get able to follow some sports rules. Children at this age, can have sports guided by rules and engage in competitions. They can start playing basketball, football, tennis, athletism, swimming and more.

From 10 to 12 years

At this stage, a child reaches to bigger thinking that enables them to create sports techniques and aim at winning the competitions while respecting rules. They can play basketball, hockey, volleyball and more games. At this stage, children start quitting some of the things they liked due to their age and changing secondary characters in the body. A trainer has to help children stay focused on their likes and talents. A trainer has also to help a child interact in sports with others at the same age to avoid injuries, fractures, etc.

Children are often led to parents’ favourite sports. Does that compromise the children’s talents?

Definitely. That is doing bad to a child. A child should practice different sports and make a choice of which sport to retain. If a parent wishes to see a child pursuing the parent’s sports career, they should start early developing the child’s love of the sport by making a child know much about that particular sport.

Adult people often do sports to de-stress or refresh the body after work. Why should a child do sports?

Sports are so important for human health especially for children because it makes muscles and bones strong, develops confidence and prevents different diseases like diabetes, heart attack, high blood pressure, etc. Sports help children perform well at school according to different surveys. Sports are also source of income when a child develops it into a profession.

What can a parent help a child who does not like sports?

A parent should first know why the child does not like sports by initiating a talk with the child and show a will to help them solve the problem behind that lack of interest in sports. When a child does not acquire a certain sport early, it becomes hard and frustrating when they join others who do much better. In this case, a parent offers special training to the child at home or tasks the sport’s coach on special consideration of the child for them to improve quickly.

How can a parent know their child’s talent in sports?

It will depend on the type of sports. There are two types of talents. There is an innate talent whereby you just see a child playing and confirm that they are talented. I can cite an example of the FC Barcelona’s player, Lionel Messi. There is also an accrued talent which comes as a result of a child’s passion and hard work. There are children who show that they are committed to winning in anything they do and even do extra exercises outside of their team. For example, Real Madrid’s player, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Can play things compromise a child’s love for sports?

Yes. It is possible for a child to get busy with play things (toys) and stop going to sports exercises. However, they are other things like computers, telephones, TVs and prestation games which can distract a child. A parent should have control over child’s use of all that and let them be used in the right time.

When should a child not be allowed to do sports?

Only when it has been instructed by a doctor due to some health issues.

Some parents think there are exclusive sports for boys and others for girls; what do you say about this?

That is wrong thinking. I urge parents to let children train in all sports. A child can practice any sport as long as they love it. Parents should accompany children in their career course and encourage them for career development.

So often or so, parents and teachers appreciate children over school performance, home activities or proving good discipline until it becomes like a must that every good deed of a child is to be awarded.

Dr Alphonse Sebaganwa, a lecturer and researcher at University of Rwanda’s College of Education and an expert in human behaviour and child’s education reveals to IGIHE the best ways of appreciating a child while avoiding covet for gifts.

Appreciation can be done by using a word of mouth, symbolic or material gifts in order to please and encourage a child to perform or behave even better.

Types of appreciation

1. A congratulating word of mouth such as ‘well done’, ‘you are a good child’, among others, is important.
2. Some symbolic actions like clapping for a child, getting them seated in the best seat in a classroom for a while can be part of appreciation. A teacher can place a better chair than the rest in classroom and leave it for the best performers in any exercise. A nice medal can also be used in classroom to be worn by a best performer for some minutes.
3. Material gifts such as foodstuffs, drinks, school materials, clothes and more can also be offered to a child for appreciation.

Dr Sebaganwa says that appreciation in the first category shows the affection that a teacher or parent has for a child and that encourages a child to happily do as they instruct. He adds that parents and teachers should not appreciate everything good that a child does.

“A child should be told well about the purpose of an exercise, its importance to themselves and other people so that the child does it without expecting appreciation or gifts,” he says.

Appreciation in the second category shows the honour that a child earns from excellent performance or improvement in their performance compared to the previous.

“For example, if a child improves from 2 to 6 out of 10 marks, they deserve better appreciation than a child who goes from 7 to 8 out of 10,” he says.

About giving a temporary tenure of seat of honour or a medal to a child, Dr Sebaganwa says that this kind of appreciation develops confidence of a child and gets courage to keep up the good work.

Appreciation in the third category which is commonly used at school and home carry some bad effects when parents or teachers are not careful about that kind of appreciation.

Dr Sebaganwa urges parents and teachers to always explain to children that they should not expect gifts at any performance because those gifts often make children covet them instead of having the courage to perform better.

Beware parents and teachers!

Dr Sebaganwa says that appreciating a child can do more harm than good whenever it is wrongly done.

“Every kind of appreciation is good when it is well done and in the right time. A child’s good performance or special behaviour should be appreciated but not very often because it can spoil a child and start expecting appreciation at anything. If that becomes routine, a child can stop performing when they feel they do not need appreciation,” he says.

A child should be trained to understand that their good performance does not bring immediate rewards but think about long-term benefits and that their performance will benefit not only themselves but also other people.

Dr Sebaganwa concludes saying that appreciating a child must be timely with the aim of encouraging them and urges parents to explain to children about anything they do for them to let children understand the purpose.

Following the picture of his craft of Kigali Convention Centre (KCC) went viral, Didier Gakwisi Gisa, 13, has toured the country’s best building which he had all along been watching from outside the fence.

Accompanied by his father and mother, Gisa has happily toured KCC moving from room to room contemplating all the building’s features.

A picture of KCC’s crafted copy and a boy seated nearby went viral a few days ago, making Radisson Blu Kigali hotel which manages KCC invite the boy for a tour. Opened in July last year, KCC was built at a tune of $300 million and probably remains the best structure in Kigali.

Surprisingly, the boy who appeared in the picture is not Gisa but his friend Uwikunda aka Gasore.

“We have learned that the boy behind this widely circulated photo is a friend of Gisa! Please meet the real Gisa and his lovely family!” Tweeted Radisson Blu Kigali during the family’s tour in KCC.

The family lives nearby KCC in Gasabo District, Kimihurura Sector, Rugando Cell, Gasasa village.

Hanna Moges, the public relations officer at Radisson Blu Kigali & Convention Centre, said that they were able to reach Gisa by facilitation of different people through social media.

“We have invited him and family to tour the facility. We have gifts for him including materials that will help him develop his talent and school materials. Above all, we want to start regular competition for craft talented children and it will be named after Gisa

The competition to get Gisa’s work voiced further will start soon when all get arranged.

After the tour, Gisa said he is happy to see the building’s interior which he missed during his work of crafting KCC in clay.

“I had never been here inside KCC and I had insufficient materials. As I have seen all the features, I will add tiles and glasses when I get them. I liked constructing different things when I was too young. I also built a copy of Amahoro Stadium,” said Gisa.

Gisa’s father, Mvunabandi Gakwisi, said that his son is usually talented with drawing skills which mainly originate from their family.

“He had been doing such creations for long. There is time he saw a man riding a camel at an exhibition in Gikondo and he crafted that image. It is his innate talent and my elder brother had the same talent though he lacked support to develop it,” the father said.

Mvunabandi said he is ready to support his son by all means to develop the talent.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has inked a partnership with local tea company, Sorwathe, on improving children’s education and early childhood development in districts of Gicumbi and Rulindo in Northern Province.

During the signing, Unicef Rwanda’s public relations officer, Albertine Uwimana, said the partnership concerns infants and children below seven years old and will consider first females working for Sorwathe and those around the tea company’s activities.

“Sorwathe employs, among others, pregnant and breastfeeding women. We want the company to give those women opportunities to raise well children,” she said.

Sorwathe has always supported early education and has so far constructed four schools in Gicumbi and Rulindo districts.

“Unicef has committed to training women working for Sorwathe on the best ways of raising children. Sorwathe will also put in place systems that help women and children to develop,” said Uwimana.

Rohith Peiris, the managing director of Sorwathe, said the company that started in 1972 is eager to contribute to the welfare of its employees and neighbours as it has always done.

“We believe that children are the force for the private sector’s future; so helping them to grow well is preparing tomorrow’s taskforce, clients and empowered citizens,” he said.

Rohith said that Sorwathe intends to build a school every year and provide every child with a cup of porridge every day.

Ted Maly, UNICEF Rwanda’s director, lauded the country’s efforts towards childcare and said the global vision is to provide early education to every child by 2030 and in Rwanda every village will have a centre for early childhood development.

Imbuto Foundation which usually supports children’s education and welfare commended the signed partnership.

Imbuto Foundation’s deputy country director, John Ntigengwa, said that building parents’ capacity in raising children is so important and pledged more efforts to build up good foundations for children’s education and welfare.

Girls spend 40% more time on household chores such as cooking, cleaning, collecting firewood and caring for family members, than boys of the same age, according to a new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The report titled “Harnessing the Power of Data for Girls” indicates that two out of three girls spend most of their daily hours doing household work like cooking, sweeping the compound, collecting firewood and water.

They also do less underestimated activities like caring for babies and elderly people.

The story of BBC states that girls labour increases as they grow up. Girls aged between five and nine years spend 30% of their time on household chores while those aged 14 and above spend over 50%.

Somalia has the highest rate as girls aged between 10 and 14 spend 26 hours weekly doing various household activities.

There is also high labour disparity between girls and boys in Burkina Faso and Yemen.

“The overburden of unpaid household work begins in early childhood and intensifies as girls reach adolescence. Girls are deprived of their precious time for studies and enjoying their childhood. This disparity between boys and girls cause gender imbalance whereby females’ labour double males’,” said UNICEF’s principal gender adviser Anju Malhotra in a press statement.

The report also indicates that girls face higher violence like forced marriage, forced school dropout and genital mutilation.

The report has been released ahead of International Day of the Girl slated on October 11, and includes the first global estimates on the time girls spend on household chores.