Giving children in Rwanda the chance to grow up
within the love and care of a family
An update report for The Radley Charitable Trust
Inchcape Foundation
It is now two years since the Radley Charitable Trust began a three year partnership with Hope and Homes for
Children to help children in institutions in Rwanda to benefit from the love of a family. Over the last year, with
your support, we have made significant progress in Rwanda and I am delighted to update you on this progress in
this report. Thank you for your commitment to helping vulnerable children and families in Rwanda.
Progress in the Noel Institution project
Since our last update to you in December, I am delighted to tell you 31 more children and young adults have
been moved out of Noel Institution and successfully reintegrated into families or helped to start independent
living. This brings the total number of children we have been able to move out of the institution to 196, just under
half of the 521 children identified at the beginning of the project. We are delighted with this rate of progress in
what is a complex and challenging project.
In addition, in recent months behind the scenes, a further 49 children and families have been prepared for
reintegrated. The process is complex as it is essential that our team not only identify the best family placement
for each child, but that both the child and their family are ready to be reintegrated. The process begins with a
thorough and individual assessment of each child’s needs and of their family situation. All families receive some
support in the form of counselling and where needed we also provide more extensive support to ensure the
family is stable and able to support their children. Material interventions such as home improvements and the
purchase of necessary items for the child such as school supplies, medicine, clothes and food are also provided
where the lack of these items are a barrier to children re-joining their families. As a result of this support, we
expect these 49 children to be reintegrated in the coming months.
As well as moving children out of the institution, our team are also focusing on supporting families at risk of
separation and providing alternative family care for abandoned babies, babies like Clarisse.
Almost exactly a year ago Clarisse was found abandoned in a hole in the
ground shortly after her birth. She had been left to die. Luckily she was
found by a member of the community who took her to the village leader
Nalia (pictured here with Clarisse). Nalia rushed her to hospital but at this
point Clarisse was at risk of being sent to the local institution, Noel de
Nyundo. Hospitals and health centres have been identified as one of the
main points of entry to institutions. We are working with local leaders and
healthcare professionals in medical centres and maternity hospitals to
help identify children at risk of abandonment so that we can try to prevent
children being separated from their families. In this case the hospital staff
and Nalia made contact with our team.
As well as being the village leader, Nalia is a mother and she and her husband had recently taken part in training
to become a foster family, as part of the closure of the Noel Institution. Nalia and her husband agreed to offer an
emergency foster home to the baby while we investigated long-term solutions. They named her Clarisse. While
our team tried to trace Clarisse’s biological family we supported Nalia with the costs of having another mouth to
feed and an additional child to clothe as well as paying all of Clarisse’s medical costs. Three months later we
were no closer to tracing Clarisse’s family but the baby girl was thriving. She was happy and healthy and had
developed a strong and loving bond with Nalia. Although we are continuing our efforts to trace her family we are
looking into the possibility of Clarisse remaining with her new family either as a long-term foster placement or
being adopted by Nalia. Whatever happens she will now always be part of a family.
Our wider work in Rwanda
In addition to our progress on the Noel institution closure project, we are also continuing to work with the
Rwandan Government, local communities and organisations in Rwanda to bring about the replacement of all of
Rwanda’s institutions with family and community based alternatives. Recent highlights from this work include:
 Progress with the development of a new Community Hub in the capital
city of Kigali. The hub will provide a range of services to vulnerable families
and children including after school clubs, early childhood development
groups, income generation services, health and counselling services. The
hub is nearly complete and will begin providing services to prevent the
separation and institutionalisation of children in the next few months.
 Completing training to 28 Government employed social workers and
psychologists who will work with local communities on the closure of
institutions across the country. We will provide technical assistance and
support to these projects in three target districts. These professionals are
key to the delivery of Rwanda’s national strategy for childcare reform which
aims to see every child grow up in a loving family.
 Providing training to local professionals, community leaders and local
authority staff. Training remains a key area of work for us with a focus on
developing understanding at all levels of children’s need and right to grow
up in a family and also developing capacity to support families to stay
together. Through training and capacity building we ensure sustainable support for families and children and
enable these professionals to go on to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in society. Over the last year
we have trained and advised over 1,500 professionals at both Government and community levels, including
heads of institutions, volunteer community health and development workers, religious leaders and
representatives from the police and health centres.
2014- Our 20th anniversary year
This year, Hope and Homes for Children is celebrating its 20th Anniversary. Founded by Mark and Caroline Cook
in the midst of the Siege of Sarajevo in 1994, at the time we were solely focussed on rebuilding the Bjelave
Orphanage, driven to help vulnerable children in desperate need. Twenty years on our motivation remains the
same, but we have changed our approach from rebuilding orphanages to closing them down and instead finding
family-based solutions for children without parental care. Since 1994, we are extremely proud to have been
directly involved with the closure of 36 institutions, and a further 35 have been closed with our assistance.
Through these closures and the development of family-based alternative care we have enabled over 30,000
children to grow up where they belong – in loving families.
In 2013, with the support of the Radley Charitable Trust, we moved 1,292 children out of institutions and into
family-based care, prevented 5,392 children from being separated from their families and trained 3,328 child and
social care professionals.
We are extremely grateful for the support of The Radley Charitable Trust towards this project which has
helped us to provide both practical and psychological support to families to enable their children to return home
or, like Clarisse, to avoid facing a childhood in institutional care. Thank you for helping us to make this
possible. I look forward to sharing some more detail about the children and families who have benefitted from
your support in person later in the year. In the mean time please get in touch if you have any questions.
Thank you again for your support
Pascale Costello, 01722 792911, [email protected]