Rwanda : Journalists trained to advocate negative impacts facing Orphaned Children

National Children Commission recently held a one day workshop with media practitioners about sensitizing the society about negative impacts of children living in orphanage institutions.
This initiative by NCC was done in line with the government program that every child should have a home or a family he or she belongs, not in the orphanage institutions.
National survey found out that, children in orphanage institutions suffers from different psychological disorders due to lack of shoulder to cry on.
“The effects of a child that was brought up in orphanage everything is general like beds and clothes, which denies children to have psycho social development” Claudine Nyinawagaga, Hope and Homes country director says.
Rwanda currently has 33 orphanages while 18 are owned by religious organizations like Caritas, the research showed that one of the strong causes of increased number of children in orphanages is the presence of orphanage institutions.
It is believed that, women who dump their children have full knowledge that orphanages will take care of them and local leaders help them to look for orphanages instead of facilitating them to raise their children.
All 33 orphanages in the country have 3323 orphans, 762 (22.9)percent come from Kigali, 10 percent(347) from Northern province and 20 percent in southern province.  While eastern 455, western province 1086 making Kigali the first province that has a lot of orphans because lots of orphanages in place.
Media practitioners are call upon to spread the government program to uproot the issue of children living in orphanages.
By encouraging people through their medium to adopt children and fight the habit of abandoning kids for orphanages.
The government spends 8.682.679 annually which means that one child costs 1.5 m Rwf per year, 87.600 per month, while 2.920 Rwf are spent on one child per day, according to the national survey.
All children living in orphanages will be in their respective families or adopted families by 2014, according to the National Children Commission officials.http://itangazamakuru.com/index.php/2012/06/rwanda-journalists-trained-advocate-negative-impacts-facing-orphaned-children/