PROJECT INDEPENDENCE
Kasabo District, Remera Sector, Kigali, Rwanda
Project Independence, begun in 2006, is a vocational training program. Its purpose is to train youth who have been affected by AIDS in a marketable skill so they can help support themselves and their families.
The CHABHA-Rwanda staff administers the program and sets up the training sites. They hold workshops for participants on work ethics, budgeting, job seeking strategies, and HIV prevention. They also work to maintain contact with graduates.
This career development program places students who are not in secondary school and who show eagerness to learn in businesses with skilled teachers. Project Independence students are learning to cook, to serve, to do hotel work, to become home workers, to fix cars, to sew, to do salon work, to construct, to design, and more. Students learn on site; many also have internships at other, similar establishments.
In its first year, 169 students enrolled, and although 13% dropped out for family concerns, of those who successfully completed, 73% have jobs or are in informal work, earning money. In the second year, 131 youth successfully completed the program.
For both its first years, Project Independence was funded with money raised by US high school students, first those of Operation Day’s Work, a collection of schools, and in the second year, an enterprising group of students at Northfield Mt. Hermon. Perhaps you know of a school or schools whose students would like to help Rwandan youth. Let us know!
I have had the opportunity to see the impact of the work of Project Independence first hand. Orphaned teens, who were otherwise reduced to begging and worse on the streets, now are able to support their younger siblings. This means they are able to eat every day. They can go to school, which they know is their path out of poverty.