RWANDA / ORPHANAGES

Rwanda's government plans to find homes for more than 3,000 orphaned and abandoned children. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:03:09
• Production Date: 30 July 2012
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: SOCIAL GROUPS; SOCIAL WELFARE; SOCIAL SERVICES
• Geographic Subject: RWANDA
• MAMS Id: U120730f

Description

STORY: RWANDA / ORPHANAGES
TRT: 3.09
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / KINYARWANDA / NATS

DATELINE: 13-18 MAY 2012, KIGALI, RWANDA

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, Irakoze and Kesia picking vegetables
2. Med shot, Irakoze and Kesia picking vegetables
3. Wide shot, Irakoze and Kesia walking to kitchen
4. Med shot, Irakoze and Kesia in kitchen
5. Close up, VidiviKarangwa, psychologist
6. Pan left, Irakoze and Kesia
7. Close up, social worker
8. Wide shot, Irakoze, Kesia and social worker
9. SOUNDBITE (Kinyarwanda) IrakozePulcherie, Grandmother:
“I felt so bad and I started crying. I was caught up in emotion, I took her in my arms with too much emotions. I was extremely happy and at the same time caught up in emotions.”
10. Med shot, Irakoze, Kesia and little boy reading
11. Close up, Kesia reading
12. Close up, Irakoze
13. Wide shot, Irakoze, Kesia and social worker
14. Pan right, MporePefa orphanage
15. Pan left, empty corridors
16. Tilt down, empty rooms and bunk beds
17. Zoom out, painting of child on floor
18. Wide shot, ‘Hope and Homes’ NGO worker walking with former owner of MporePefa
19. Wide shot, NGO worker standing with former owner of MporePefa at window
20. SOUNDBITE (Kinyarwanda) AnnouliatoBamurange, Owner MporePefa:
“The closure has made me happy as it ends the mission I started and I am happy that those children are being placed with families and live a better life. And it gives them opportunity.”
21. Wide shot, Annouliato walking to door
22. Close up, Annouliato at door
23. Wide shot, Irakoze and Kesia in kitchen
24. Med shot, remnants of a room at MporePefa.
25. Close up, shoe at MporePefa
26. Zoom out, Esther drinking
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilbert and ProvidenceMwenedata, Foster Parents:
“When we met Esther for the first time, the connection was direct, being her or us I don’t know but it was very easy, I can’t really explain.”
28. Med shot, Gilbert with Esther and Gladys
29. Close up, Esther
30. Med shot, family photograph
31. Zoom out, Esther and her sisters’ photographs

Storyline

This simple task of collecting vegetables with her grandmother is something three year-old Kesia might never have known.

Abandoned at the doors of a health clinic, she ended up at an orphanage called MporePefa, on the outskirts of Rwanda’s Capital, Kigali.

It took the dedication of a social worker and psychologist from Hope and Homes, an NGO working with the government of Rwanda, to unravel her complicated story and eventually find her family.

SOUNDBITE (Kinyarwanda) IrakozePulcherie, Grandmother:
“I felt so bad and I started crying. I was caught up in emotion, I took her in my arms with too much emotions. I was extremely happy and at the same time caught up in emotions.”

A national survey shows that most children in Rwanda’s 34 institutions have family members, but it’s not easy to trace them. One reason is a law against abandoning children, which makes many parents fearful of speaking out. So a lot of counselling and reassurance is required.

As the first institution to be close as part of this programme, the corridors and rooms of MporePefa, once filled with fifty children, are now dark and empty.

The closure of institutions is part of an ambitious government plan to find homes for more than three thousand orphaned and abandoned children.

Research shows that children who grow up in an orphanage are less likely to develop to their full potential.

Institutions are expensive to operate and conditions usually poor. Most are privately owned and funded by donations from churches abroad. Over time though, they’ve become an easy way to deal with unwanted children.

SOUNDBITE (Kinyarwanda) AnnouliatoBamurange, Owner of MporePefa orphanage:
“The closure has made me happy as it ends the mission I started and I am happy that those children are being placed with families and live a better life. And it gives them opportunity.”

An exercise such as this is complex. Orphanage owners must be supported in an alternative income generating activity. Also, success cannot only be measured in closing down orphanages and placing children in homes. It is in creating a broader social safety net which will protect the most vulnerable members and prevent the abandonment of children.

The memories of a life in an orphanage are just that for three-year-old Esther, whose future now is with this loving family, who felt strongly they wanted to adopt a child.

SOUNDBITE (English) Gilbert and ProvidenceMwenedata, Foster Parents:
“When we met Esther for the first time, the connection was direct, being her or us I don’t know but it was very easy, I can’t really explain.”

These family photographs are something both she and her parents will never take for granted. The hope is that more children will also have the opportunity to experience the same.