Welcome to Iwawa, an island on the methane rich Lake Kivu that has been in the news lately. Its new found reputation is not because of tourism based activities, but rather its life shaping activities among former street children.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011, will forever be etched in the nation’s almanac. Before the centre came to fruition, the government drew a lot of international criticism, for forcibly rounding up hundreds of street children in Kigali.
Police had launched a wave of round-ups aimed at getting the children off the streets. Hundreds were detained in a transit centre outside the capital.
Critics claimed the ‘forced institutionalisation’ of street children was an attempt to hide the problem, instead of tackling its causes. The western media dubbed the island as the ‘Alcatraz of Rwanda’ or the ‘Island of no return” where the government detained people it deemed unfit to live on the ‘clean streets’ of Kigali. New York Times Journalist Jeffrey Gettleman once depicted the dire conditions in which live hundreds of minors and young adults arrested for petty crimes ranging from being homeless to not having an identification card. They are secretly sent and kept isolated on the island without the knowledge of their parents and relatives and without trial.
While the government claims that the island is a rehabilitation facility, many see it as nothing more than a prison camp where the country’s street kids, whom the government feels have tarnished the appearance of the country, are kept contained.
However, several years later, the critics have been forced to swallow the bullet. The Iwawa Rehabilitation and Vocational Development Centre rolled out its first graduates since its establishment in February last year in a ceremony presided over by Prime Minister, Bernard Makuza, and attended by the diplomatic corps led by the European Union Representative Michel Arrion and French Ambassador to Rwanda, Laurent Contini, as well as parents and guardians.
During the colourful ceremony, a total of 752 youth would forever remain grateful to government for the life-changing experience. The once destitute children were forever handed a new lease of life as they also play a part in national development courtesy of their newly gained skills.
According to media reports, a total of those that graduated, with 253 completing courses in construction, 157 in bee keeping, 156 in commercial farming, 108 in carpentry and 101 in tailoring, on top of language skills in English and Kiswahili as well as mathematics.
The youngsters were also provided with guidance and counseling besides receiving psychological support needed to renounce their former street lifestyles in exchange for discipline, society values, patriotism lessons and religious values.
As we all know, street children face numerous hardships and danger in their daily lives. In addition to the hazards of living on the street, these children face harassment and abuse and within the juvenile justice system for no reason other than the fact that they are street children. Living outside the protection of responsible adults, street children are easy and silent targets for abuse and society at large. On the streets, they are subject to frequent beatings as well as monetary extortion and sexual abuse.
Sadly enough, it is the harassment and negative adult reactions, not their hunger that troubles street children the most. Isolation and distrust cause them the greatest pain.
The majority of the children would not wish to continue with street life if given an alternative.
Various reasons were given to justify why the majority of them would wish to discontinue with street life. They included the fact that street life is bad and tiring, the desire for a better life and the desire to go to school and to enjoy other conveniences elsewhere. If government had failed to act promptly to save these kids, there will follow serious results ranging from HIV infections to other perilous circumstances
Children do not deserve the right to be abandoned on the street. The street is void of parental care, protection, love warmth and safety and cannot be a home.
These children did not desire to leave their homes and live on the streets where their lives are constantly in danger. The Iwawa youth’s desire was that, they also have that right to complete with equals of the schools but not to compete with equals of similar fate on the streets.
Hence, the government’s efforts to rein in a then mounting tide of street children were not only judicious but rational too. Many African governments lack mechanisms to take care of street children. And nipping the bud to arrest the situation brings about not just street children but street families.
Thus, Rwanda’s efforts through Iwawa were well-read. The onus now lies on all child-workers, the government, NGO’s and other stakeholders and opinion leaders to consolidate these gains and ensure that factors that bring about street children are identified and all loopholes sealed.
Leave a Reply