Strengthening Families and reintegration for children from street situations

Since 2005, SOS Children’s Villages Rwanda initiated the Family Strengthening Programme. The community empowerment programme aims to support vulnerable families in their capacity to protect and care for their children.

The program prevents family separation which is among the root causes of child abandonment and strengthening the safety nets for vulnerable children and their families within the community. The programs/projects support vulnerable families with positive parenting skills and economic empowerment.

Vulnerable families are strengthened economically with activities such as entrepreneurship training, income generating activities, Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLA), kitchen gardens, animal husbandry, a rotational cow distribution scheme and environment protection.

They also receive psychosocial support and are trained on positive parenting skills, conflict management and child rights. Facilitating legal marriages is one of the activities around child rights advocacy contributing to the reduction of family conflict and is usually associated with birth registration of children. The projects offer youth vocational training, facilitate access to existing social services in the community, support teen mothers, child headed households and build the capacity of community-based child protection structures and child protection actors.

In 2021, SOS Children’s Villages Rwanda started implementing a community-based rehabilitation model to re-integrate children living on the streets into their families and the community.

The family strengthening programme is implemented in the districts of Gasabo, Gicumbi, Kayonza and Nyamagabe, Kamonyi, Kicukiro, Bugesera, Musanze, Rwamagana and Bugesera,