Last month, members of our UK and Rwanda teams travelled to Musanze in the North of Rwanda to mark the beginning of construction on a new community hub.
To ensure that children and adults with disabilities in Musanze District can thrive in family and community settings, for the past three years we have been working to close Centre St Vincent – an orphanage for people with disabilities.
Now, as we enter the final stage of closing this institution – and with the majority of the 29 children who lived there successfully transitioned in to family care – we’re focused on developing an inclusive community hub to provide long-term support for those families, and others in the area.
Usually when we’re creating community hubs and support facilities, we’ll try and repurpose existing buildings – but in this instance it wasn’t possible to provide the local community with the services they needed that way.
So, thanks to our partners at The Seneca Trust and the Sumner Wilson Charitable Trust, we are building a brand new community hub that will provide inclusive early childhood development support for children aged 3 to 6, including those with disabilities, as well as tailored support for children of all ages with disabilities and additional learning needs.
Providing communities with the support they need
Building a community hub from scratch gives us an incredible opportunity to create a space that provides children and the local community with the exact kinds of support they need.
The new hub in Musanze will feature:
- A physiotherapy and sensory room to ensure children with disabilities receive tailored therapeutic support.
- Early childhood development rooms that will provide strong foundations for learning.
- A craft and skills room to help children develop fine motor skills, and explore their creativity and practical abilities in a supportive environment.
- An outdoor play area and a sports and recreational room to promote physical activity and social inclusion.
- A conference and training space for community outreach and engagement.
- Agricultural and farming spaces where families and young people with disabilities will gain hands-on skills in crop cultivation and animal rearing, supporting food security and creating sustainable pathways for long-term income generation.
A far-reaching impact
The hub will provide essential individual and family support services to 150 children in the surrounding communities, approximately 70% of whom have disabilities, helping to prevent family separation and institutionalisation.
And 65 children with very severe disabilities will also receive targeted support to ensure they can remain safely with their families.
Beyond direct support, the hub is part of our work to strengthen the wider community. Peer support and income generation groups will benefit 3,750 people, while community outreach and awareness-raising activities will engage 2,000 community members each year, challenging stigmas around disabilities and promoting inclusion.
This outreach and support work will significantly improve the lives of people with disabilities across the whole of Musanze District.
Ending orphanages in Rwanda
When families don’t have the resources they need to care for their children, they’re often forced to make the heartbreaking decision to send them to an institution in the belief that they’re doing what’s best.
Orphanage owners target parents – particularly the parents of children with disabilities, whom they know face extra pressures – by making false promises to provide the kinds of care and support that their family cannot.
But when we create facilities like the one we’re building in Musanze, suddenly families can access the support they and their children need locally. And when they have the resources they require close by, the pressure on the family is lifted. There’s now no need to send their child away for them to get a better life – and the orphanage owner’s “sales pitch” is rendered redundant.
Throughout Rwanda, our work is focused on ensuring that families have the support they need, so that they never have to send their child to an orphanage, and so that children already in orphanages can get Back to Family and grow up in loving, caring environments.
It’s projects like these – and the kind support of donors like The Seneca Trust and the Sumner Wilson Charitable Trust – which will mean that one day soon Rwanda will be completely orphanage free.
