Rwanda will on Monday, November 20, join the rest of the world in celebrating the World Children’s Day. This year, it will be marked under the theme; for every child, every right, underpinning the importance of safeguarding the rights of children. In Rwanda, it has been 11 years since the government, at the request of children, decided to phase down orphanages across the country to give children a chance to be raised in a family set up as opposed to growing up in institutions. This decision was also backed by research where evidence indicates that such large-scale institutions can be deeply harmful to children, leading to developmental delays, lower levels of intelligence, problems forming relationships, and the likelihood of exposure to abuse and neglect. While the people who started these institutions had good intentions for the children, and many were doing everything to give the children under their care the best, such reasons stated above were not to be underestimated. It is then therefore that the process to reintegrate them into families started. Interestingly, most of the children in orphanages had parents and mostly ended up in such institutions because of domestic violence. Such parents were approached and asked to take back their children and those that were found to be vulnerable, were given support to be able to raise their children. Meanwhile, those that did not have parents were set up for adoption or placed into foster homes where they are now being raised. By 2019, at least 3000 children formerly in orphanage facilities had successfully been integrated in families and most of the institutions have since been closed now. The remaining work is to constantly follow up these children through the programme dubbed Tubarerere Mu Miryango, literary translated as let us raise them in families. Such a bold step to close down these facilities exemplifies a government that is ready to pull all stops to ensure the rights of children are guaranteed and that must be commended. However constantly following up on children and the quest to address the challenges that leads children to run away from their families should be a continuous undertaking, and this should not be left to the National Childhood Development Agency. Local government and other non-state actors, especially religious organisations mainly because of their presence and influence in communities. Ensuring the rights of children should therefore be a collective undertaking, not just a preserve of one institution.
