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?Giving Hope’ program empowers African orphans
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A UMNS photo courtesy of YWCA Rwanda
In Rwanda, an OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) working group makes honey as a means of becoming self-sufficient.
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OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) working group makes honey as a
means of becoming self-sufficient. The child-headed household groups are
part of Giving Hope, a program sponsored by Church World Service and
its Africa Initiative and started in Rwanda through a partnership with
YWCA. Giving Hope aims to meet the needs of orphans and at-risk children
affected by HIV/AIDS. St. Marys (Ga.) United Methodist Foundation is a
major supporter of the program. A UMNS photo courtesy of YWCA Rwanda.
Photo #06-226. Accompanies UMNS story #137. 3/9/06 |
March 9, 2006
By Linda Bloom*
NEW YORK (UMNS) — When Iyakaremye’s parents died, he sought work in Kigali, the
capital of Rwanda, leaving his two school-age sisters behind.
But a program called “Giving Hope,” which brings child-headed households
together into working groups to help them build better lives, lured Iyakaremye
back to his sisters. He is now in the process of realizing his dream to become a
farmer.
Sponsored by Church World Service and its Africa Initiative, the goal of the
Giving Hope program is to expand the reach of churches and grass-roots
organizations in meeting the needs of orphans and vulnerable children affected
by HIV/AIDS. The program began in Rwanda through the YWCA, a lead partner, and
has spread to three other East African countries ? Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya ?
and six other partner organizations.
According to UNICEF, 28 percent of all orphans in sub-Saharan Africa — about
12.3 million children — have lost parents to HIV/AIDS.
Epiphanie Mujawimana, a mother of four and program coordinator for the YWCA in
Rwanda, is considered “a driving force” behind the success of Giving Hope.
During a Feb. 1-March 3 visit to the United States, she met with supporters of
the Giving Hope program, including CWS member communions and the St. Marys
United Methodist Church Foundation in Georgia.
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Photo courtesy of YWCA Rwanda
An OVC working group grows vegetables to raise money for school.
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OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) working group grows vegetables to
raise money for school. Such groups are part of the Giving Hope
program, sponsored by Church World Service and its Africa Initiative and
begun in Rwanda through a partnership with YWCA. Giving Hope aims to
meet the needs of orphans and at-risk children affected by HIV/AIDS. St.
Marys (Ga.) United Methodist Foundation is a major supporter of the
program because of the emphasis on community development. A UMNS photo
courtesy of YWCA Rwanda. Photo #06-228. Accompanies UMNS story #137.
3/9/06 |
Community building, through OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) working
groups, is the core of Giving Hope. By participating in a group, children build
friendships and provide one another with emotional support and assistance in
household work.
When the 22-year-old Iyakaremye joined his OVC group of 28 children, he was
selected as its president, Mujawimana said at a March 2 briefing in New York. To
generate income, the group started a bee-keeping project. “A few months later,
they had honey and the honey was sold,” she said.
A second project, rice cultivation, added to the group’s savings accounts, from
which Iyakaremye borrowed to buy his first four goats. The four goats became 13.
Four were sold to repay the loan and another seven sold to purchase a cow.
During the last farming season, Iyakaremye had good harvests of corn, beans and
bananas, Mujawimana added, and his teen-age sisters were able to go back to
school.
One of the biggest problems that orphans face is finding money to pay school
fees, she noted. Niyombabazi, 19, who lost his parents at the age of 8 in a
Tanzanian refugee camp, was repatriated to Rwanda in 1999 with a foster family.
He later reclaimed his family’s land but was forced to leave high school because
of a lack of funds.
Niyombabazi joined an OVC working group and presented a proposal to open a small
restaurant next to a primary school that would serve lunch to teachers and
nearby mine workers. The group gave him a loan.
“He started with 20 customers,” Mujawimana said. “In one month, he had paid back
his loan and he could get prepared to go back to school.”
Community emphasis
The focus on community development was a key reason the St. Marys United
Methodist Foundation became a major supporter of the Giving Hope Program,
according to Jeff Barker, foundation president.
“We liked the fact that it hit all the various aspects of community development
and helping communities raise themselves up,” he told United Methodist News
Service.
The foundation was created in 2001 after St. Marys (Ga.) United Methodist Church
received a $60 million bequest from the estate of Warren A. Bailey, a longtime
member. The foundation’s board decided “to be more effective we needed to become
more focused in our international giving,” Barker said.
“We determined that Africa was where we needed to be and the HIV/AIDS situation,
especially with regard to youth, was the issue we needed to be a part of,” he
added.
A number of organizations submitted proposals, but the foundation, which had
worked with CWS on earlier grants, liked the agency’s focus for Giving Hope. The
result was a three-year partnership that “has exceeded our expectations” and
spread from three to four countries. “We’re very excited about it,” Barker said.
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A UMNS photo courtesy of YWCA Rwanda
Christina
Kabagiza (left), of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, lays
bricks for a house in Rwanda along with Gina Stein from St. Marys United
Methodist Foundation.
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| Christina
Kabagiza (left), of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, lays
bricks for a house in Rwanda along with Gina Stein from St. Marys United
Methodist Foundation. They are working with Giving Hope, a program of
Church World Service and its Africa Initiative and started in Rwanda in
partnership with the YWCA. Giving Hope aims to meet the needs of orphans
and at-risk children affected by HIV/AIDS. St. Marys (Ga.) United
Methodist Foundation is a major supporter of the program. A UMNS photo
courtesy of YWCA Rwanda. Photo #06-227. Accompanies UMNS story #137.
3/9/06 |
Knowing the issues
The original three-year grant was for $1.5 million, but that commitment has
increased. The foundation gave $500,000 to the program in 2005, $600,000 in 2006
and expects to give $700,000 in 2007.
Barker visited the program early in 2005 and witnessed how techniques such as
sharing skills and using adult mentors were making the teenage heads of
household more self-sustainable. “It helped us really understand what the issues
were,” he said.
The program objectives for Giving Hope are to increase support for
self-empowerment of some 26,400 children in 6,600 households affected by
HIV/AIDS, ensure programmatic responses by at least 27 church-based or related
organizations, and reduce HIV/AIDS transmission among 30,000 youth through
creative youth-led prevention and education initiatives. In 2006 alone, the
program is expected to reach more than 14,636 orphaned and vulnerable children.
Tammi Mott, CWS associate director of social and economic development, said the
agency’s plan for Giving Hope “is to share the ideas, share the expertise ? with
other organizations that are dealing with similar issues.”
Such organizations would use the OVC empowerment methodology, which begins with
government and community collaboration, the formation of OVC work groups, and
the engagement of community mentors and volunteers. The children involved are
given a voice in program planning and become peer educators.
More information on the “Giving Hope” program and the CWS Africa Initiative is
available by contacting Mott at
tmott@churchworldservice.org or visiting
http://www.churchworldservice.org/africainitiative/index.html on the
agency’s Web site.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
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