Giving Hope OVC Success Story -- Kakuze Mediatrice
Mediatrice (in black) with her brother and three sisters. Photo: YWCA/Rwanda |
OVC = Orphans and Vulnerable Children
Kakuze Mediatrice, 20 years old, Nyamabuye District, Gihuma sector, Rwanda.
Kakuze Mediatrice takes care of three sisters, Nyiramajyambere, 18, Mukanyandwi, 16, and Nyirabashyitsi, 15, one brother, Tuyisenge, 13, and a foster child, Cecile. Cecile is HIV-positive.
In 2001, after both parents died of HIV/AIDS, Mediatrice became head of the family. Before the CWS-supported Giving Hope program came into their lives: their greatest need was for food. All the children were malnourished because of a diet of mostly sweet potatoes. Mediatrice used to work for neighbors to get the sweet potatoes, which the family ate about four times a week. Eating beans and other vegetables was unusual for them.
In addition, two of the sisters dropped out of school for lack of the necessary fees. The children were also having problems with inheriting their parents’ property. They were often sick, and needed schooling and a way to earn a living.
After the Giving Hope program came into their lives:
Mediatrice attended all the training provided by the Giving Hope program, and learned about children’s rights, life skills, household management, nutrition and food security, micro-business planning and management, health and hygiene, HIV/AIDS, and how to make animal feeds. As a result of the help from the Giving Hope program, the two sisters are back in primary school, and three of the sisters have taken vocational training classes in sewing, hairdressing, and postcard making. The three sisters combine their vocational skills projects with other money-making activities, such as selling cassava cakes and beignets, cassava flour, palm oil, and kerosene at the market and from their home. The family can meet its own needs.
The Mediatrices now raise pigs, goats, ducks, vegetables, including beans, sweet potatoes, and cassava, for its own use and for selling in the market. The family no longer suffers from hunger or malnutrition; they are healthy, and they have started saving for the future.
Mediatrice also helps other children within the Giving Hope group. For example, she takes care of Cecile (a group member who is HIV-positive). When Mediatrice has to work, she is responsible for informing other group members when Cecile is sick, and arranges for them to take her food at the hospital. She also stays with the younger children when their elder sisters or brothers have gone to school or to work.
Mediatrice’s dream is to have a happy family, and to make a lot of money to support schooling for orphans. When you visit Mediatrice, you can see a big picture of a school and students on her living room wall.
Read more about the Giving Hope program.
Support for Church World Service helps make this program possible.
Updated 10/9/06
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