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Mentorship for Youth in Rwanda
Many youth in Rwanda face challenges including dysfunctional and broken families, high crime rates, drug abuse, poverty, depression, teen pregnancy, and ethnic and tribal prejudices. Many children live in single parent households with no real intergenerational connections or support as they navigate these challenges. The lack of parental figures often leads to drug abuse and violent behavior, with youth dropping out of school and leaving the church. In Rwanda, the Anglican Church recognizes the need to invest in these troubled youth through one-on-one mentoring programs that can provide them guidance and support for their daily lives while pointing them toward the love of Christ.
Since 2023, the Anglican Church in the Diocese of Gahini has paired over 390 young adults with mentors, including 67 in refugee camps for internally displaced people in Rwanda. These mentoring relationships have provided youth the support they need to make positive change and have inspired other churches and dioceses to start their own youth mentoring programs.
Our Partners
The Youth for Development and Human Rights Advancement (YDHRA) and the Christian Association of Youth Mentoring (CAYM) began working with the Anglican Diocese of Gahini in Rwanda in 2023 to establish an initial mentoring program. The program grew quickly as nearly 2/3 of the diocese's 58 parishes began mentoring activities.
YDHRA's mission is to promote human rights and the development of youth and women, empowering them with life skills for active participation in the development of their country. Led by Andrew Maheme, and with the support of CAYM, YDHRA is seeing young lives changed through mentoring and is now scaling up their work in Rwanda and beyond. Andrew reports on the mentoring program, “We are extraordinary happy with their progress and we gave them supervision, orientation, training and building trust and friendships with them. It's truly God's hand working with all the impact they are creating already. Already mentees have started attending church and a mentee was baptized."
CAYM strengthens communities by connecting generations, helping Christians to start and grow safe, effective, and sustainable mentoring ministries. Based in the US, CAYM started with one diocese in Rwanda and now also supports mentoring in 10 African countries. CAYM is active with five dioceses in Uganda and Kenya through two Anglican universities, Uganda Christian University and Bishop Hannington Institute of Theology and Development, and is also partnering with bishops in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Funding for this project will be used to evaluate the current program to ensure it has a solid foundation and to develop leaders to expand youth mentoring in Rwanda, East Africa, and beyond.
Be sure to check out an interview with Peter Vanacore, president of CAYM, on our blog!
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Background photo credit: "Rwanda" (CC BY 2.0) by Francisco Anzola
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