Eric Mugisha, 7, has been living with his aunt in Kimisagara sector since the beginning of this year when he was integrated back into his family. He had been living on the street for the last two years fleeing the domestic conflicts between his two parents. After quitting street life, he enrolled back in school at Kamuhoza primary school. Mugisha is among 3,058 children that were taken off streets since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the figures from the National Child Development Agency (NCDA). The NCDA figures also indicate that children in orphanages have decreased from 3,782 to 380 as of today whereas some orphanage centers have been closed: There were thirty-four but only four of them still remain as of today. James Nduwayo is the manager of Tubarerere mu muryango, the NCDA program that seeks to create a national alternative care system whereby all children are returned from residential institutions into family and community care, and to ensure that all Rwandan children have access to, and are supported by, a strengthened and sustainable child care and protection system in their families and communities. He expresses that the integration program was in operation since before but the Covid-19 posed a greater risk on their lives. “Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have put more efforts in integrating children back to their families, as it was causing a healthy burden to the population,” he said. “This pandemic was imposing more risks on their lives and everyone else, as the children were not respecting the stay-at-home Covid-19 restrictions, it caused a greater risk to their health and the population at large,” he explains. How is it done? Fred Mufulukye, the Director-General of National Rehabilitation Services explains that the process of integrating street children has been revised to maximize its efficiency. “We have strengthened the procedure by setting up a team made of 11 officials in each district with the duty to integrate street children into families,” he says. Mufulukye notes that the team identifies the hotspots where street children are concentrated and starts the process of integrating them. “We first approach them through the local authorities and hold discussions with them, once they agree to be integrated, we screen them for different health problems including Covid-19 and take them to families,” he recounts. Once the children are taken home, parents are given a commitment form to sign and commit themselves to taking care of their children for the rest of the period. “We ask parents to sign the form because most children do not go to live in the streets because of poverty, but because of parents’ irresponsibility and domestic violence among other family issues,” he highlights, adding that a progressive follow up is always conducted to make sure the children do not go back to the streets. Mufulukye cautions parents to avoid domestic violence and irresponsibility which have been identified as the leading cause of street children, rather than poverty as still perceived by many.
