Rwanda, Africa

RWA02 - Young Women's Scholarship Programme

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Key Partnership Information:

• Partnership Ref.: RWA02

• Commenced: 25/02/2022

• Funding Status: No Current Donor

• Partnership Type: Orphans & Vulnerable Children, Training / Education, Evangelism / Church Planting

• Funding Size: $8,000 - $14,999

• Annual Budget: US$ 8,250

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Current Partnership Impact:

• 17 families are being assisted

• 17 people are in vocational or agricultural training

• 69 girls are part of the programme but only 17 were trained in hairbraiding or sewing

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Other Partnership Information:

• View partnership reports (latest shows first)

• No partnership video available yet

• Email us about supporting this partnership

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Partnership Overview

Despite the fact that Rwanda is more developed than most African countries, there is still great poverty and a violent, abusive underbelly. Those that suffer the most in this environment are the young people, especially the young women. Youth Renewed Ministry has big plans to help young people and currently run a large football training programme that is helping many to break free from poverty. However, this caters mainly for the boys and young men as most of the girls do not play football. Many girls fall prey to men and become pregnant, many have to drop out of school as their families cannot afford to send them. 

Jemima has a burden to help the girls as she sees the terrible lives they end up leading. She would like to help hundreds but needs to start small. This project will help some and will hopefully be the beginning of a much broader ministry in the future. Initially 17 young women who have dropped out of school will be selected to participate in the programme. They will receive a scholarship to attend a vocational training school so they can obtain a skill. In addition, they become part of a mentoring programme to assist them to achieve well and change.  

History of Partnership

Around 2017 Jemima and George contacted BHW and a conversation began. In 2018 three BHW team members were going to Rwanda to undertake a Foundations for Farming training course and they met with Jemima and George and gave a positive report on their ministry. BHW's New Partnership Facilitator then took up a conversation with them and although initially the project they presented was too big for BHW to be involved in, they persisted in staying in touch and several conversations ensued. 

It became clear early on that they had a dream and were heavily invested in young people but were struggling to know how to help those they were called to help. In 2019 the BHW New Partnership Facilitator and his wife visited and stayed with them for three days. They got to know George and Jemima quite well and they were very open and showed what they were doing. Subsequently there has been regular contact and several Zoom and WhatsApp conversations. They have had past contact with several mission organisations and NGOs so there has been the need to break down the stereotypes they have about what it might look like to care for these girls, but we have now arrived at a place where there is understanding about how this partnership could commence. 

Even though BHW's New Partnership Facilitator has only visited once (due to current COVID related travel restrictions), others from the team have been there and there has been prolonged interaction with George and Jemima so in early 2022 the BHW Executive approved commencing this partnership. 

Beneficiaries

The primary beneficiaries are the girls who get to participate in the programme. Most of them are abandoned by their families and many will have small babies. Because of this they drop out of school and spend the rest of their lives in tragic circumstances.   

What We Like About The Partnership

These are very good people with a real heart for their people. 

They are already deeply involved in the community and are helping as many as they are able. This project is a great next step in the development of their vision. 

They are very flexible. They first came to us with a large vision, too large for BHW, but they listened to our responses and adapted well to the requests. The challenge was to find a way to start this partnership and help as many people as possible. 

 

Key People

Jemima 

Jemima was born and raised in the Netherlands. She is both Dutch and Rwandan as her father is a Rwandan and her mother is Dutch. She emigrated to Rwanda on 15th October 2011 where she got married to George in December 2011. 

George and Jemima met at George's local church (Christian Life Assembly) in 2007 when Jemima came to visit her family in Rwanda together with her mum and younger brother. Her younger brother, who was 10 years old at the time, had become friends with George as George loves young people and they exchanged contact details. Jemima's younger brother gave Jemima's contact details to George. 

Later, when Jemima had returned to the Netherlands, George reached out to her on e-mail, and they quickly started building a friendship which grew into a serious relationship. Although it was not easy for them having a long-distance relationship and challenging at times, with God's help they were able to make it through and to be patient for Jemima to finish her studies at Saxion University in Deventer, the Netherlands. After she graduated in August 2011, she decided to move from the Netherlands to Rwanda. One of the most important things that kept them together was that they used to read the same scripture in the Bible daily and would discuss this. This helped them both in their spiritual growth as well as to connect on a deeper level in their relationship with each other.

From the moment they met, George would always share about his passion for working with young people and the sports ministry that he had started. He used football as a tool to reach out to youth with the love of Christ. Jemima became interested as she has a heart for helping people and working with children. She decided to join the board of Youth Renewed Ministry as the General Secretary in 2017. Her main role is to look for partners/sponsors, update the website and social media (Facebook) and write newsletters. 

Jemima is a graduate of an International Associate Degree (BA) in Information Service & Management and an Associate Degree in Communications in August 2011. She also has a Diploma in Social Work. She currently works as the Executive Assistant to the National Director of World Vision Rwanda where she had previously worked as a front desk officer since 2015. 

She and her husband George live in Kigali, Rwanda with their four children Joshua (born 2013), Ian (born 2016), Gianna (born 2019) and Joella (born 2021).

George 

George (Jemima's husband) grew up in Uganda as a refugee as his family fled the ethnic violence in Rwanda. He was rejected by his father, and as a result raised himself in the bush. In his own words he says, "I was like an animal. I did not know how to relate to people and could not look them in the eye or speak to them because I thought I was worthless." His sister was part of the rebel forces that ended the 1994 genocide and she invited George back to Rwanda. Upon returning, George struggled with an addiction to smoking and stole to survive.

In 2002 George talked to God personally for the first time and asked God "if you really exist and are strong like people say you are, then I will go to church and give my life to Christ. If I smoke again, I will know that you do not exist, and that you have no power." He was invited to church for the first time soon after, responded to an altar call, and gave his life to Christ. At this service his desire to smoke was completely taken away, he was completely freed from his addiction, and began to follow Christ seriously on a journey of transformation. George learned he was not worthless, but very valuable.

In 2006 George began discipleship training with YWAM (Youth With A Mission). During this time, he was praying about what God wanted him to do with his life. He became burdened for young people, especially street kids, so started his own sports ministry where he spent much of his time on the streets with a soccer ball ministering to all the young people that he could. 

It was through this sports ministry that George discovered Young Life. George says that Young Life was great news to him as it was an answer to his prayers of reaching many lost young people. Since he started working with Young Life, the ministry in Rwanda has grown from one club to 93. There are now eight full-time staff members and 744 volunteer leaders throughout the country. 37% of the volunteer leaders are female, with a goal of making it 50% in the next few years. George has focused on building strong leadership teams that are unified. He believes this is a huge reason for such great success in ministry. Due to his growth in leadership, he now serves as the regional director in Rwanda. 

However, George is frustrated that Young Life only cares for the young people when they fit into their age criteria and that they are only concerned about their salvation. George and Jemima have a much more holistic understanding of the gospel and out of this frustration Youth Renewed Ministry was birthed. He got some people around him, started a local NGO, and has this burden for vulnerable young people. 

A major part of George's work with Youth Renewed is the football ministry. Currently there are around 200 boys in the football programme. The boys come from a slum area; it is pretty rough in there. They are divided into three groups and every day there is coaching from 5- 7 pm. The young ones play a game once a week among themselves. The older ones have a team in a league and play each Saturday. A number are semi-pro with second division teams, and a few have got to the first division. This is his passion. He attends training whenever he can as his priority is to support the coaches, so they stay involved and to assist with materials and operations. 

 

Vision And Annual Strategy

Vision 

The vision of Youth Renewed Ministries is: A world in which every young person will have a chance to know and experience the love of God in a practical way and have access to basic needs. Youth Renewed Ministries has seen that reaching out to teenagers only in sports will not be enough given the challenges struggling young teen mums in Rwanda face today. They wish to provide practical support to help these young mothers.

This will be achieved by:
- Empowering them by creating a lovable learning environment in which they will be able to learn and grow.
- Helping them to remain calm and loving. They often feel alone, frightened, and extremely sensitive about their pregnancy. The most important thing they offer is continued friendship.
- Showing each girl the love of God and His forgiveness. Most of these young girls were looking for love in intimacy with a guy. Now she feels ashamed and unworthy of love at all and most probably abandoned. They will point her to God who loves her unconditionally.
- Celebrating life. The girl may consider this baby a mistake of a horrible abuse and a barrier between her and a normal life. They will lovingly remind her that no matter how the baby was conceived, he or she is a gift from God

Strategy

To send at least 17 girls per year to some form of vocational training. This will be either sewing, cooking, something in the beauty sector, or something they choose to do. Alongside this there will be a regular and frequent mentoring programme by older women to guide and encourage them. 

Their dream is to establish their own vocational training centre at some stage in the future. 

In 5 years, there should be at least 100 women with some degree of self-reliance and with a totally transformed outlook on life. Hopefully by then there will be more young women involved in this programme and it will have grown in both size and significance. 

 

Annual Budget

The annual budget covers school fees, a uniform, and medical insurance for each girl. 

 

Personal Testimony

Real "Life Change" Stories

Uwuese is 20 years old, had her first child at 13 and now has another 1-year-old. She lives with her mother in a village outside Kigali and her children live there. She constantly fights with her mother. They have nothing and there is no food in the house, the 1-year-old is constantly ill. The oldest daughter often doesn't go to school as she has no shoes. 

Uwuese is a prostitute, it is the only way she can earn money, and in 2019 found out that she was HIV+. She doesn't want to be doing this but only went to grade 3 at school and cannot get a job. She has a blood condition as well and if she works hard manually, she bleeds a lot. She would like to learn hairdressing or sewing. 

 

Carine is 19 years old and lives in a slum neighbourhood. She lives in a compound filled with women with small children. Her parents divorced when she was very young and abandoned her. She thinks that she began living on her own when she was just 8 months old. Carine was then raised by her grandmother. Eating was very hard as her grandmother could not work and Carine was so young. She was able to go to school occasionally. She was 16 years old and in her final year of primary school when she got pregnant. This changed her life completely. Her grandmother was very angry with her because they could not provide for themselves, and another person to take care of would make the situation much worse. The father was 18 and lived on the street. He could not afford to take care of himself much less take care of Carine and their son. After she gave birth to Arnold her problems increased. 

She struggles with many things including clothing the baby and feeding the baby and herself. He is very weak, and she is very frail. The grandmother occasionally helps her, but work is very hard to find.

Carine has come to YRM for the past several years. She says that she does not regret any of it because she knows that she cannot change her situation and has come to accept it. She sometimes wishes that it didn't happen, but she loves her son. She occasionally asks the father for some help with his baby, but he doesn't want anything to do with him anymore. She would love to go back to school but having a child and feeding him would be too much of a burden. She hopes that her son will have a bright future, go to school, and be healthy. Her need for help is great and without it who knows if her son will even survive.