PROJECT INDEPENDENCE Project Independence, begun in 2006, is a vocational training program. Its purpose is to enable youth from partner organizations who have been orphaned by AIDS and may be the heads of their families of siblings to learn a marketable skill.
The CHABHA-Rwanda staff administers the program. They hold workshops for participants on work ethics, budgeting, job seeking strategies, and HIV prevention. They also try to maintain contact with graduates.
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First Group of Graduates - Project Independence Project Independence was initially funded by a grant from Operation Day’s Work. ODW is composed of member high schools in the US whose students work, for a day, pool their earnings, and select the project to support for a year. The second year of funding came from an enterprising group of secondary students at Northfield Mt. Hermon whose efforts have made continuation possible. CHABHA is working so that other US-based youth can contribute to the learning of Rwandan youth. |
The partner organizations include the AMAHORO Association, AGAPE, AJESOV, and UISENGA N’MANZI, another organization in Kigali that works with orphans. All partners have members who have successfully completed vocational training and are telling their younger colleagues about the opportunities, and the difficulties, for there are a number of challenges to face.
This career development program places students who are not in secondary school and who show eagerness to learn in businesses with skilled teachers. Project Independence students are learning to cook, to serve, to do hotel work, to become home workers, to fix cars, to sew, to do salon work, to construct, to design, and more. Students learn on site; many also have internships at other, similar establishments. In its first year, 169 students enrolled, and although 13% dropped out for family concerns, of those who successfully completed, 73% have jobs or are in informal work, earning money.