Disability - The Alivera Project

Disability is often misunderstood in Africa, which can lead to suffering. Parents often blame themselves for the challenges their children face and many children are hidden away, some even abandoned. Certainly, very few are easily able to access education and employment.

Our solution is founded on the conviction that every young person is special and precious. It was inspired by a girl called Alivera who sadly lost her young life to epilepsy. We were determined to try to prevent this happening to other children with disability.

The Alivera Centre provides residential and outreach training and care in support of children with disability.

Impact

• Improvement in the understanding of disability in the community
• Improvement in the level of care and inclusion for young people with disability (YPWD) in the home, in school, in the community and workplace

Key Performance Indicators

• The number of young people with disability (YPWD) being cared for effectively in their homes
• The number of YPWD accessing mainstream schooling or vocational training
• The number of YPWD in paid employment
• The number of PWD in positions of responsibility

Actions

Rwanda Action supports young people with disability. We provide training for parents, teachers and carers so that disability will be better understood, and children will be well supported and integrated in their homes, in school and in the community.

We find that with access to the right kind of support many children do well in mainstream schooling. Indeed, we are working with the primary school adjacent to The Alivera Centre to become a School of Excellence for Special Needs and Inclusive Education and we hope that this will inspire other schools to make better provision for including and caring for children with disability.

Even with a good education or vocational training, young people with disability still find it very difficult to find work in an area with high unemployment rates.

This inspired the construction of The Alivera Village alongside The Alivera Centre. The Village provides accommodation for up to 32 young people with disability and the opportunity for work experience, developing skills and gaining confidence. The opportunities for traineeds include a small farm, a craft workshop, a cafe, a hairdressing salon, shoemaking, knitting and sewing workshops and a shop offering IT services, all of which serve the local community.

The trainees moved into the Village in March 2022 and we quickly saw a change in the attitude towards people with disability in the local area. Trainees will stay for up to two years' work experience, after which we support them to move into full-time employment or set up their own small businesses.

We aim to make The Alivera Project so successful that it will become a model for the support of young people with disability in other districts in Rwanda.