Pelagie Yaramfashije (a wife of an ex-combattant, a resident in Gashora, Bugesera district) had just returned from Rwanda. One of her greatest problems was the lack of a permanent home.
She moved with her six children and had to move every now an again to find a suitable place to live with them.
As a farmer, she embarked on tilling other people’s land in order to earn an income. COVID-19 came along and made her worse.
“When the pandemic started, it was hard sustaining the family but farming helped us survive. At least I got food to feed us,” she says.
Pelagie Yaramfashije is also a home tailor, which has allowed her to make some extra money.
Later, the Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission RDRC intervened and her life and that her family were better.
“I was given financial support which I invested and managed to buy livestock such as goats. I started saving money for construction. I later sold some goats and bought iron sheets, slowly by slowly, I saved and managed to construct a house,” she narrates.
Yaramfashije says that owning a home gave her security and a sense a belonging. She is grateful that her kids can now go school.
“I am grateful; I encourage donors to continue supporting those who are in need. RDRC and UNDP were there when we needed them the most, and for that, may God bless them.”
Emerance Mokandoli, a Nyamagabe resident, is one of the beneficiaries who was supported by RDRC, just as Yaramfashije.
With her seven kids, supporting her family didn’t come easy, but with financial aid of over Rwf 300,000, Mukandoli, her ex-combatant husband and kids saw their lives transform for the better.
She was able to construct a house with that money and bought livestock. They were able to send their children back school with the money.
“On top of that, I learnt tailoring through their support. One of my sons was trained in mechanics. After I finished my studies, they gave me a sewing machine and other tailoring tools. This is what I use for my business now. We appreciate them a lot for what they did and the support they continue to give us,” Mukandoli says.
“I thank the commission and its partners because they managed to give me a better life. I also thank the government for welcoming and taking good care of us,” she adds.
Impact
In partnership with RDRC, UNDP under the Project to Support to the reintegration of ex-FDLR combatants and dependents repatriated to Rwanda from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in November 2018,” has supported 246 beneficiaries, who were enrolled and graduated in vocational skills training (102 women/girls and 144 men), while mothers with more than five children under 18 years received additional financial support to cover specific needs of women and their children.
These included pads, supplements, and other items. The Project was developed to respond to the immediate need for emergency support towards social and economic reintegration of ex-combatants and their dependents referred to as “Phase 65” of the Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Programme (RDRP).
The above numbers were recorded from the vulnerability assessment, which also identified 21 female victims of GBV who were provided with psychosocial support, Alexis Ndayisaba, an official from UNDP explains.
The 21 GBV cases also received psychosocial support. They were referred to hospitals and provided individual counselling. This group is mostly composed of ex combatants’ wives, widows and single mothers who needed particular attention and support.
“These special groups associated with ex-combatants particularly women, children and people with disability had to get protective measures in the design, planning as well as implementation stages of DDR (Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration) programmes.”
Realized achievements
Many studies and reports have highlighted the importance of including marginalised groups in peace-building, harmony within communities, and sustainable growth.
This support allowed for increased access to finance for 1,053 ex-combatants (320 men, 320 femmes) and their dependents (733 men, 322 women), who were supported through income-generating activities. Beneficiaries also received start-up capital (30.4% for women).
95 percent of beneficiaries invested in agriculture and animal husbandry, while a small percentage invested in other businesses such as petty trading, tailoring, and so on.
After obtaining health insurance for the fiscal years 2020/2021, all beneficiaries (ex-combatants or dependents) had increased access to insurance. There were 1127 beneficiaries, including 751 ex-combatants, 257 women, 41 people with disabilities (all men), and 82 children (49 girls and 33 guys) who received health insurance subscriptions. This was due a sensibilisation campaign on psychosocial services and related government programmes, including health, hygiene and sanitation insurance.
555 excombatants and their dependents (including 237 females, 42.70%) were trained in marketable skills. These included tailoring, hairdressing, welding, etc. They were given toolkits that were tailored to their trade after they graduated to increase their business opportunities.
49 RDRC employees (23 women and 26 men) were also trained on gender responsive planning and implementation, monitoring and evaluation in DDR.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 early 2020, UNDP Rwanda has supported national response to contain the spread of the virus as well as supporting national plan to recover from negative effects of the crisis and build back better. Therefore, in addition to these initiatives UNDP Rwanda also managed to mobilise resources from various partners to support the GoR to contain the spread of COVID-19 as well as its impacts on socio-economic development sectors.
The Government of Japan has provided financial support through UNDP Rwanda Office, to help Excombatants’ cooperatives and of people with disabilities whose businesses were hit hard by COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the pandemic, cooperatives used the funds to rebuild their businesses or to start new businesses.
This support was provided to COVID-19 by the Government of Japan as part of the global component of health-related execution of the Japan Supplementary Budget.
Out of 135 ex-combatant’s cooperatives available, 63 benefited from a special grant of Rwf 2 million each to recover from the negative impacts caused by COVID-19 pandemic. This enabled ex-combatants to have greater access to the economic recovery resources by their cooperatives.
There was increased awareness on the returning and reintegration opportunities to combatants and their dependents through dissemination of inspirational human-interest testimonies from women ex-combatants and dependents, for instance ex-combatants’ role in peace building and economic empowerment success stories. This project used radio, TV, and newsletter to spread the stories and to encourage other combatants to peacefully return to DRC.
It was also a success to complete the rapid livelihood assessment for beneficiaries and dependents in order to assess their livelihood situation and identify their needs so that interventions can be tailored appropriately.
dmbabazi@newtimesrwanda.com
Source: rnewtimes
