Nyarugenge: New Youth Center to curb unemployment in Karama IDP Model Village

By Felicie Tombola.

At least 100 youth who dwell in Karama/Norvège Integrated Development (IDP) Model Village will be entrepreneurs after spending a year of hands-on skills in a newly established Karama Youth Prosperity Centre in the village in Nyabugogo cell, Kigali sector in Nyarugenge District.

The initiative is under the project dubbed “Empowerment of youth skills towards job creation in Karama IDP Model Village” initiated and implemented by Friends Efforts to Support Youth (FESY) organization in partnership with the City of Kigali under the support of the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) through Rwanda Governance Board (RGB).

The project will train, mentor and help beneficiaries to create cooperatives and to find markets for what they will be producing. Fifty (50) of 100 beneficiaries will be trained in green farming on small scale, thirty (30) will learn tailoring while twenty (20) will be trained in e-Business by applying computer science.

Beneficiaries eye huge opportunities from the skills expected and they commit to get them at good use in creating own jobs that will get them rid of poverty as most of them are teen mothers, dropped out students and graduates who are yet to get employment.

Donata Imaniragena, 20, is one of the beneficiaries who chose to acquire Green Farming skills of Vegetables and fruits. She says that Agriculture is her passion and believes that it is a business that can help her to be financially stable.

“This is an opportunity we get and it will help us to address the problem of unemployment. I like learning and working together with my fellow youth and I know that the skills I will get will help me to do Agribusiness in the near future.” Imaniragena said.

Eric Niyonkuru, another beneficiary who will learn tailoring says the initiative will address both juvenile delinquency and unemployment among the youth in the village.

He encourages boys to also embrace tailoring and forget about saying that it is a profession of girls and women.

“Boys can also learn tailoring, but many of them still have in mind that this is a profession of girls and women, which is a stereotype in our society.” Niyonkuru says.

Anita Igiraneza, 21, also preferred to follow the skills in tailoring and says the profession will help her to raise two children she is looking after.

“I look after two children, my son and another abandoned child I took from the street. In current life, I have to invest much efforts to cater for my family’s daily living cost as both my father and mother are physically handicapped. So, I believe that this is an opportunity I gain to help me create a job in tailoring business and I will manage to support my children and my parents in the future.” Igiraneza says.

Chantal Niyonkuru, 20, is a teen mother who also likes tailoring. She says this is an opportunity that will help her realize her dreams after dropping out of school in Senior three due to lack of financial capacity.

“Tailoring profession will help me cater for my child and to avoid being lured into negative behaviours.” Niyonkuru says.

Christopher Ntirushwa, Executive Secretary of Kigali Sector says that local authorities will ensure sustainability of this project by educating beneficiaries about good values of Rwandans. He urged them to use the opportunity they gained to prove how job creation is possible. “Their behaviours on duty will give a promise of good implementation of the next project’s phase.” He said.

Speaking during the official inauguration of the project on Friday, May 27, 2022, James. K. Rwabwera, Executive Director of FESY Organization said that FESY’s long-term initiative aims at implementing government’s programs mainly youth empowerment and employment.

“This project aims at helping youth to graduate from poverty though job creation. We need these young people to have competitive knowledge at the labour market. We expect successful results after one year of project’s implementation and we plan to go for the next session to help more youth.” He says.

Betty Murebwayire, Division Manager of Nyarugenge District lauded efforts by FESY to help equip youth with basic job creation skills to reduce unemployment burden in the country.

“We pledge to partner with you to tackle this problem and continue helping youth to create more jobs. Please, grab this opportunity in your hands and get best use of it to remain with important startup in creating jobs and strive for economic development,” Murebwayire urged youth.

Karama Integrated Development Model Village is home to 240 households relocated from high risk zones around the three districts of the city of Kigali. It was officially inaugurated by His Excellency President of Republic of Rwanda Paul Kagame on July 3^rd 2019.

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