Capital: Kigali
Area: 26,338 km²
Population: 8.4 million (July 2005)
Ethnic groups: Hutu,Tutsi and Twa
Official language(s): Kinyarwanda, French, and English
Religion(s): Roman Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, native religions
Currency: 1 Rwandese franc = 100 centimes

SOS Children's Villages' facilities in the country

In 1978 SOS-Kinderdorf International realised that it was a desperate necessity to set up SOS Children's Village Facilities in Rwanda and so they contacted the relevant authorities there. Just one year later the first families were able to move into their SOS Children's Village in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. In 1983, they started with youth work in order to help the youths who had outgrown the SOS Children's Village on their way to living on their own. In 1990 a civil war broke out in Rwanda between the two ethnic groups, the Tutsis and the Hutus. The fighting escalated and reached its zenith in April 1994. One of the effects was that the families had to flee SOS Children's Village Kigali and move into temporary accommodation in the capital. Shortly after this, it was possible to set up a makeshift SOS Children's Village in the buildings of a former orphanage in Ngarama, in the northeast of the country.

Then the children had to move out of SOS Children's Village Gikongoro, which was built in 1992, temporarily flee their country and take refuge in SOS Children's Village Bukavu in neighbouring Congo. Considering the very difficult circumstances, SOS Children's Villages was able to achieve incredible, and sometimes super-human results, in that the SOS Children's Village Facilities in Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi and Congo had to cope with an extra 1,000 children to care for at times.

After the situation had more or less normalised in 1995, a third SOS Children's Village in Rwanda was planned in Byumba. This was so that the many orphans could be given the chance of living a normal family life again. This SOS Children's Village, together with an SOS Kindergarten, a school and a medical centre, went into operation in 1997. Because of the continued need, the same ancillary facilities were also added in Kigali. During this period, the main emphasis of SOS Children's Villages work here lay in therapeutic rehabilitation of traumatised children and in repatriating families.

Starting in 2004, SOS Children’s Village Central Africa in collaboration with other NGOs took various steps to assist the needy population, especially persons affected by HIV/Aids, e.g. assistance with medical drugs, school fees, creation of self-help projects. After the establishment of a SOS Vocational Centre for the SOS co-workers and mothers from the region of the Great Lakes in Kigali, a Vocational Centre for the SOS youths and young adults was built 2005 with the aim to provide them with a founded practical training.
 

In order to face the difficulties linked to the well-being of the children in the district of Kayonza – situated in the east of the country – but, of course, also in order to provide assistance (to take care of vulnerable children) as well as prevention (advocating for the rights of children and providing family strengthening programmes) to children throughout Rwanda, construction of a fourth village started in June 2008. The SOS Children's Village Kayonza was completed in spring 2011 and opened its gates shortly afterwards.

In Rwanda, there are currently four SOS Children's Villages, an SOS Youth Facility, four SOS Kindergartens, four SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools, three SOS Medical Centres, two SOS Vocational Training Centres, as well as four SOS Social Centres.

Contact:
Villages d'Enfants SOS du Rwanda
B.P. 1168
Kigali
Rwanda
tel. +250-58 38 74
fax +250-58 38 73