Global youth connect reports

Rwanda Program Report Human Rights Delegation for Young Leaders December 31, 2008 – January 13, 2008 Organized in Collaboration with Never Again – Rwanda-CIMS

Center for Information and Social Mobilization (CIMS) CIMS’ current mission is to research how the land reform laws in Rwanda are being obeyed or disobeyed, so that people can realize their land rights. CIMS says that the land issue is the most important issue related to civil harmony in Rwanda because it is so integral to the lives of the majority of the people in Rwanda who are agriculturalists, many of whom were dislocated during the 1994 genocide and the preceding civil war and strife and who returned to find their land taken over.

CIMS also leads conflict management sessions for community members so that they can resolve their disputes concerning land rights peacefully, and according to the laws. Volunteer activities included meeting with organizers and helping put together a document more concisely describing the organization’s past work and future goals to be used for fundraising and publicity purposes. “The issues CIMS deals with are very important issues and getting to go out into the field was a really great way of seeing the reality of Rwandan culture, society and the role of NGOs in that mix.I learned a great deal about what it means to do advocacy work and also got to meet Rwandans who devoted not only their lives but also their personal money to the causes they work for. It was very encouraging to see Rwandans working for their own people at a grass-roots level, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet and learn from such devoted, hard working people.” -- GYC Volunteer for CIMS Global Grassroots www.globalgrassroots.org One of the volunteer experiences during the January 2008 delegation was unplanned. Global Grassroots is a U.S. NGO which, as its name implies, encourages social entrepreneurship at the grassroots level in several conflict zones around the world.

Having established themselves in Rwanda in 2006 with several small scale projects, Global Grassroots needed some volunteer assistance as well and when there was some time available several of the GYC participants provided assistance on one of their projects. Haguruka www.haguruka.org.rw Haguruka, which means “rise up,” provides legal aid focusing on women and children’s rights, but also on marriage and succession issues. On average they see 4,000 cases annually, some of them referred to Haguruka by other NGOs. Volunteer activities included:

 • Drafting a template for a grant proposal that Haguruka can use to seek funding from foundations for the domestic violence prevention initiative they are currently undertaking, an initiative specifically aimed at trying to help raise funds for the building of a new center to house victims of domestic violence while their cases are brought to trial;

 • Research on potential foundations that might be interested in funding this initiative; and

 • Translation of the proposal template into french