Rwanda

Background

• Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa with 8.5 million people on 26,338 sq km of land. It is landlocked, has few natural resources, and minimal industry. Rwanda is bordered by Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the south and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west.
• Last decade’s civil war left 800,000 people dead and nearly four million people displaced.
• Rwanda’s formal education system was devastated by the events of the genocide with loss of the country’s educators and much of the school infrastructure destroyed. Combined with poverty and the challenges of reconstruction of an entire society, the nation’s basic education system is not yet fully restore: An alarming 54% of children enrolled in the primary education system do not go on to complete grade five.

What We Do

The Government of Rwanda has recognised the need to balance access, quality and relevance, with a special emphasis on a curriculum that is outcome-oriented and offers the life skills and values necessary for holistic development. This calls for the introduction of innovative methods to make the existing materials more effective for the beneficiaries of its programmes. Right To Play has developed a Regional, multi-year programme called ‘Basic Education through Sport and Play for Children in West and Francophone Africa: Play to Learn’, specifically in Benin, Ghana, Mali and Rwanda. This aligns regional national priorities with a commitment to basic education as enshrined by the Dakar Framework, the Millennium Development Goals, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The results are policies that emphasize universal basic education, gender equality, enhanced life skills training, and HIV/AIDS preventative education.

So Far

As of August 2007, Right To play was implementing activities in Kigali City and in 17 districts throughout Rwanda, reaching 79,385 children and training 674 coaches in 52 schools and 15 special centres.

We organise regular participation at social mobilisation events to promote celebration of days such as the Day of the African Child, International Peace Day, International Women’s Day, and World AIDS Day