Project Launch:

Ngwino Nawe Village is a center located in the southern west corner of Rwanda. The Village houses 57 children who have physical or mental handicaps or are deaf. It is one of a few centers in Rwanda where disabled children are provided with care, love and acceptance. Most rural villagers in Rwanda don't know how to care for such disabled children and view them as unproductive, unintelligent and a burden to society. While a number of the deaf children have begun to integrate into normal primary schools, most of the children at Ngwino Nawe Village spend their entire day at the center. Caregivers provide activities for the children but they are short of training and resources to occupy the kids all day long. A grant from World Connect’s Kids to Kids Program in 2010 helped to build a playground for the Village with a see-saw, swing, basketball court and parallel bars. Stationary games are particularly important for the center since the only free outdoor space within the Village compound is by a steep hillside, too dangerous for playing ball games. All the children in the center helped prepare the new play space and many handicapped children who do not even live in the center now enjoy playing there with Ngwino Nawe kids. These improvements provide the kids a place to play with each other in non-aggressive ways, and their behavior is translating off the court as well. The parallel bars have also helped two very special kids make improvements in their physical conditions, and they will continue to help many more kids in the future.