A new strategy for education sensitization

Emmanuel MUNGWARAKARAMA

Hunger has more effects on a person than simply being hungry. It affects almost every aspect of a person's life. Besides a diminished health, improper nourishment does not provide an ample supply of energy to a person, hampering an adult's ability to perform everyday tasks, and a child's ability to learn.
If you are seven years old, routine is very important. Things like regular meals, going to school, meeting your friends and bedtime are an essential pattern of daily life, there are special days and special treats, but in the end, it's the dependability of the daily routine that keeps you feeling secure and happy.
It doesn't sound like too much to ask for. Yet for some children around Gikongoro, it is something beyond their wildest dreams.
These are the children who start each day feeling hungry and generally go to bed hungry at the day's end. They may or may not get something to eat in between. Almost certainly, they will have spent a large part of the day working, maybe tending animals, fetching water or carrying out household chores. Some of them, school plays no part in their lives. And as a result, they will grow up to be as poor as their parents and their children will probably have no more hopes than they do.
But it doesn't have to be like that. For one thing, there is more than enough means to produce in the world to push everyone a step forward: education for all as a government principle, technological advances have made it possible to increase yields and develop strains of crops suited to the harshest conditions. We just need the courage and determination to provide people with the means to help them.
But in the meantime, we have to make do with food aid. In many parts of the developing world this is still the key to breaking the cycle of poverty. Malnutrition starts in the womb; underweight mothers give birth to underweight babies. Malnutrition slows down and limits physical and mental development. And hungry children - even if they get to school - find it hard to concentrate and learn.
School feeding programs, such as those run by the Farmers to the future Initiative (FOFI) Program, supported by CARE-Rwanda have already made a huge difference to hundreds of Rwandan children. The benefits are multifold. First, school feeding ensures that children get at least one nutritious meal a day. Second, a full stomach improves children's ability to learn. And third, school feeding gives parents the incentive to send their children to school in the first place - and access to the education they need to make their lives better in the future.
As Karemera Protais, the program manager said, to fund a school feeding program will provide a lesson to children at school each day. By investing in children’s' education, a hope to have a lasting effect on them that will enable them to break free of the poverty cycle.
CARE with its collaborator FOFI, aims to assist to incorporate natural resource management subjects and linkages to agro-processing, preservation, storage, farmer-entrepreneurship, asset creation, marketing, and farmers’ organizations into basic education curriculums in 24 primary schools in 9 districts of 3 provinces.
The feeding program began four years ago in 2003. It has reduced student absences from 1080 in 2003 to 1600 now. Children want to come to school now. Cyanika Primary Headmistress, Xaverine MUKAMURARA “If you saw them in the year 2003, they were all very thin. Today our students are robust.”

A hungry child cannot concentrate on learning.
Food ensures that he or she gets an adequate education. And education again strengthens the country’s ability to develop. Jean Damascene Nsengiyumva, 17, benefits from the feeding program: “The food helps me not to fall asleep. I can follow what the teacher says so I can learn. Maybe later I can teach others.”

The objectives of school feeding programs are to provide meals to reduce short-term hunger in the classroom so that the students can concentrate and learn better, and to attract children to school and have them attend regularly.

Newly introduced school feeding program by FOFI-CARE has the potential to improve children’s learning performance.

Gender policy, strategy for women empowerment

Emmanuel MUNGWARAKARAMA


To have an adequate appreciation of the far-reaching effects of disparities between women and men, we have to recognize the basic fact that gender inequality is not one affliction, but many, with varying impact on the lives of women and men, and of girls and boys. There are no good reasons to abandon the understanding that the impact of women's empowerment in enhancing the voice and influence of women does help to reduce gender inequality of many different kinds, and can also reduce the indirect
penalties that men suffer from the subjugation of women.

Gender is a fundamental part of our daily lives. It is critical to our sense of self-identity and a pervasive part of our dealings with others. The first thing we want to know about a newly born human (even before we ask whether it is healthy and whole) is whether it is a boy or a girl, and we find it virtually impossible to interact with others until we have first identified their gender category. But gender is much more than just a personal
characteristic of individuals.

Rwanda has made significant achievements in terms of women's rights in its Constitution and laws. The Law on nationality now gives Rwandan women the right to acquire citizenship rights for their children. Moreover, a law on gender-based violence is expected shortly. At 48.8%, Rwanda has the highest number of women parliamentarians in the world.
But Rwandans should not be complacent about the situation.

Even though gender is an important issue to consider while appointing and giving opportunities in our society, competence should also be considered. The fact of being a woman/girl should not be the only factor in who occupies the post.
The empowerment of women should go parallel with capacity building, mobilization, sensitization of the entire society: so that men and women can get a clear picture on gender balance.

Gender balance and positive discrimination doesn't mean a shortcut to overthrow the political and local government positions. It must spread the sparks in all sectors – transport, business, the private sector in general – if the policy makers are conscious of woman empowerment.

Therefore, much remains to be done in achieving gender equity in the country, particularly for the rural majority and forgotten field of work.

The owner of this agrees with Dr. Herman Musahara, Dean of Faculty of Economics at the National University of Rwanda when said that, "reduction of gender based inequalities would increase economic growth hence reduction of poverty".