Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, has spoken out in support of our work during a high level conference we held to showcase our new approach to supporting vulnerable children and their families.

The President said: “The most important thing we need to do now is confront the root cause of problems facing our children so that they can live a decent life.” He added, “We appreciate Hope and Homes for Children’s noble cause of integrating children into our families.”

The President, Government Ministers and Members of Parliament and NGOs attended the event in Kigali on 10 November, where we presented our ACTIVE Family Support Model.

Founder President, Mark Cook, opened the conference with a speech about Hope and Homes for Children’s origins and our on-going commitment to providing family-based care for vulnerable children. This was followed by a speech by the Director of Programmes, Dr. Delia Pop, in which she outlined our approach to tackling problems facing children in institutions and those affected by conflict and HIV/AIDS.

Additional speakers included Vianney Rangira, our Country Director in Rwanda and Dorothée, a ‘Wise Person’. Dorothée is one of our community volunteers and she spoke about why it is important for communities to support vulnerable children. Jean Marie, a young man who is head of his household, also spoke about what our support has meant to him and siblings. Our Patron, Clare De Lore, who is wife of the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Sir Don McKinnon, also attended the conference.

Our ACTIVE Family Support model, which we piloted in Rwanda, is an evidence-based approach to supporting orphaned and vulnerable children. The model ensures a sustainable change for children, their families and their communities as we help them return to self-sufficiency. It draws together the professional skills and experience we have developed in our African country programmes and we are now using this approach in all of our programme countries in the region.

We are pleased to report that the conference generated significant interest from key people in the development arena and we look forward to using these connections to reach out to more orphaned and vulnerable children.

Find out how you can help make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children.

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