Just along from the Gahanga Cricket stadium, towards the southwest tip of Kigali – the capital city of Rwanda – if you are driving along the single track dirt road, breathing in the sights and sounds of Rwandan life, you may notice the cheerful noises drifting over from the Joy Centre. This is a Vocational Training Centre, where young Rwandans can learn vital skills that can help them out of a situation of poverty and into a world of opportunity and employment, but … does it actually work?
The overwhelming answer is yes! Clement, from our partners at Good News International who run the Joy Centre, has been telling us about what happens to students after they graduate from the programme. Almost of the young people who enrol at the Joy Centre would not be able to afford the training if they were not sponsored by Comfort International. These are people like Pacifique, who was living on the streets and was in and out of prison, or Noella who left school in Primary 3 because her family couldn’t afford the school fees.
Clement told us, “Of the thirty students that graduated from the sewing course in its first year, twenty-nine were immediately hired by a sewing factory in Gahanga. They are still working there. One of them was promoted two years later to become one of the managers of that factory. There is also another cooperative of twenty-one girls who graduated from Joy Centre and they own a workshop in Kicukiro district, where they were able to buy a sewing machine for every one of them. Others are employed by different companies. For those sewing students that we have been able to maintain contact with, 47% are employed by different companies, 39% are working on their own in cooperatives or individually, and 14% are still looking for jobs. The good thing is that among the 14% who are not working, a big number is of those who recently graduated. It means they still have the chance.”
From the welding class 78% of graduates have gone on to find employment, many of them at the Gahanga metal workshop (Kakinjiro). Some of the students who are not yet employed are able to use the workshop machinery at the centre to allow them to generate an income while they look for work. It’s incredibly expensive for them to buy machinery of their own, so being able to use the Joy Centre ones or going on to find work with another company is vital for the newly graduated welders.
Other courses at the Good News International Joy Centre include IT skills and hopefully, in the near future, carpentry. As well as vocational training, the centre provides a hub for community activities and sports and leisure. Young people, children, adults, those with disabilities, survivors and seekers are all invited to be part of the Joy Centre community.
Every individual who comes to the Joy Centre is treated with love and respect. The vocational training is providing opportunities for employment for those who, otherwise, are faced with futures on the street, stealing, in gangs or in prison. Instead, they now find themselves employees, managers, entrepreneurs and responsible young adults. Our partners at GNI are doing an amazing job, as is each and every young person who is taking the step to change their future.
