Minister of State in charge of Social Affairs, Assumpta Ingabire, has urged parents to take children to Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres across the country, for their healthy growth in the early years and ability to develop to their full potential.

She made the remarks during the celebration of Day of the African Child 2022, at Inshuti Zacu Day Care Centre which was officially inaugurated at its site located in Gahanga Sector, Kicukiro District.

According to her, taking children to ECD centres comes with numerous benefits such as helping parents detect if their children live with any disability or growth disorder hence getting help on time.

"Parents should take their children to ECD centres as soon as they suspect they have difficulties or delays regarding their growth at different stages.”

Ingabire also stressed the government’s initiative Tubarere Mu Muryango "Let’s raise them in families” (TMM) which was launched in 2012 to fast track implementation of the strategy for National Child Care Reform saying it has been effective, and is aware that only four SOSs Children villages still have children, reason being that their models allow children to live in a family-like-home.

The campaign focuses on phasing out orphanages by putting orphans in normal family settings or foster homes, as well as transforming Rwanda’s current child care and protection system into a family-based system of care.

"The children in different centres have also decreased,” she added. "Many who are still there are those with disabilities although some were adopted by different families.”

Inshuti Zacu Day Care Centre, which was inaugurated during the event, offers different services such as consultation, physiotherapy, nutrition, occupational therapy, special education for children with disabilities, special surgery for those under two years as well as psychology services, among others.

According to Innocent Habimfura, Country Director of Hope and Homes for Children, an international charity organisation which set up the centre, a child who lives in an orphanage does not embrace the love and education from a family and finds it hard to have role models to learn from.

He is aware that there are different problems in families which he said the organisation he represents is trying to tackle.

"We are working on solving those problems in families, especially for those with children with disabilities who need special care. Setting up this centre is to help those families leave their children here in a conducive environment. It also helps us to feed parents with advanced knowledge on how they can take care of their children,” he said.  

He noted that the centre currently supports 79 children and is looking forward to enrolling 415 more children around the Gahanga Sector.

Dative Nikuze, the representative of Friends of the Poor sisters in Rwanda, which runs the day care centre, said they started operating in March 2022 and were able to receive many children.

She declared that the children are no longer lonely because they meet and play with others, adding that their parents are also trained on how best they can take care of them as well as get time to do other activities while children are at the centre.

During the event, the centre was also given a van, which Nikuze said will help them transport children from sites that are near their homes to school and back, preventing them from getting late.

Day of the African Child is celebrated every year on June 16, where events are held on the continent and around the world, to promote children’s rights.