{{Within Kigeme refugee camp in southwestern Rwanda, UNICEF, through Care International, is running an early childhood development (ECD) programme and also leads on providing safe water and sanitation and child protection.}}
“By now, we are reaching almost every child in the camp aged 6 years and below with ECD,” says UNICEF Rwanda Representative Noala Skinner.
“This is essential because these early years are the one opportunity of a lifetime, when indestructible cognitive and social foundations are laid” He added.
With funding from the Government of Brazil, UNICEF and its partners, including the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugees Affairs and CARE International, have inaugurated new ECD centres that are set up in tents for children aged 4 to 6.
There, the children can learn and play, and they receive healthy food.
“All of this is a really good start, and we will build on the fantastic momentum. We will distribute ECD kits and provide additional training for the volunteers to further strengthen the interventions,” says Ms. Skinner.
“We are really pleased with the support we have received from UNICEF,” says Ministry of Education ECD Expert Innocent Nsengiyumva.
“We now hope we can move the home-based ECD out of the shelters and we will be able to provide more training to the volunteer teachers.”
UNICEF also provided the Government with 5,000 portable solar-powered radios to distribute at the camp.
The yellow radios include built-in flashlights and a port to charge a cellphone.
“There are about 4,100 families in the camp. Every family and every shelter will receive a radio,” says UNICEF Rwanda Chief of Programme Communication Nana Garbrah-Aido.
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