Civil Wedding for the participants

After Rwamrec training which touched the couples and the sensitization of Haguruka on women rights, children rights and family law; 15 couples have decided to legalize their marriage and the ceremony will be held on 26th October 2012 at Gisoz sector.
"ASPIRE has helped us to attend the different training which have opened our minds; before I thought that I will never legalize my marriage with my husband from Kigali (when we are still living in Kigali) because the life is not easy in Kigali. But after different trainings, I was the first to encourage my husband to legalize the marriage. And due to lack of means, it was not easy for my family to do it, but with a support from ASPIRE we are really motivated to legalize our wedding on 26th October 2012 and surely it will increase the value my husband given to me and also to my children". by Ringuyeneza Chantal.

«ASPIRE nous a facilité de participer dans les différentes formations, qui ont ouvert nos esprits; Avant je pensais que je ne serai jamais légaliser mon mariage avec mon mari de Kigali (où nous vivons encore à Kigali) parce que la vie n'est pas facile à Kigali Mais après les différentes formations, j'ai été la première à encourager mon mari pour légaliser le mariage. Et en raison du manque de moyens, il n'a pas été facile pour ma famille de le faire, mais avec un soutien de ASPIRE nous sommes vraiment motivés pour légaliser notre mariage ce vendredi le 26 Octobre 2012 et ça sera sûrement augmenter mon valeur pour mon mari et aussi pour mes enfants ". Par Chantal Ringuyeneza

Aspire changed Umulisa’s life - The Sunday Times

Having been in marriage for over ten years, Franswazi Umulisa, did not have any economic contribution to her family`s welfare or development. She could only get involved in housework, take care of the children and wait for the husband to bring bread home.

The CEO and Founder of Aspire, Peace Ruzage in her office. The Sunday Times / Grace Mugoya
“It was not that I was a lazy wife or one who is not interested in work, but it was about what exactly to do since I had no skills in any field of work,” Umulisa narrated.

The mother of five added that acquiring skills of life would have been the only thing that would have helped her, but that she had not also got the chance for any such training.
Read more at
Aspire changed Umulisa’s life - The Sunday Times

RWAMREC Training

Group Discussion

on 09th to 10th RWAMREC has trained 40 men-husbands' of our participants and the main topic discussed on there are:
-emancipation
- Image of gender based violence in general
-GBV in families
-types of GBV
-consequences of GBV
- how to prevent and to manage violence
-to change personal behaviour for our family and the whole community in general.
(More details on this training to come soon).

MEN ENGAGE

After observing that the ASPIRE programmes for the women can not present the positive impact while their husband and the men in general didn’t contribute in their development; aspire Rwanda  has organized an activity of interesting men to be involved in its programmes especially in the development of their families as the decision makers; on this Sunday of 17^th July from 2h pm , in partnership with  MEDSAR (MEDICAL STUDENTS ASSOCIATION) the men from Gisozi sector will attend the event which will be consisted on free BMI(The body mass index) check up and the dialogues on malnutrition and family planning, those activities will be done every month; on this Sunday it is a pilot activity which will help ASPIRE RWANDA to integrate the women’s husband to be part of ASPIRE activities.

DISTRIBUTION OF MOSQUITO NETS

On this Monday of 11^th July 2011, ASPIRE RWANDA will distribute 200 mosquito nets for 50 families(women)-stakeholders of ASPIRE; with MEDSAR (Medical students association), before receiving their mosquito nets the women will attend a session on how to prevent malaria and its negative impact in the development of the family and the community in general;  ASPIRE RWANDA is in partnership with MEDSAR in different programme especially for the health; with MEDSAR and RWAMREC(Rwanda Men's Resource Centre), ASPIRE will have the opportunity to interest the men to be involved in the ASPIRE programmes as well as the men are the decision making in the family which can easily help in the development of the women.

INVOLVING MEN IN BRINGING UP CHANGES

From  16^th to 17^th June, two representative from ASPIRE RWANDA have attended the workshop which was an opportunity to exchange the ideas where the participants were contributing on how men can be integrated in gender sensitive programs, more especially in reference  to GBV (gender based violence ), the workshop was conducted by RWAMREC (Rwanda Men's Resource Centre); ASPIRE  RWANDA has participated in this workshop after observing that the sensitization done for the women of ASPIRE can’t have an impact in their lives and community while their husband-responsible of decision making in the community do not change their mindset so that  the women also can have the right to participate in decision making in order to develop their family and community in general.

The approach “MenEngange” is an approach involving a man in bringing up changes in the way we change our society because so far, Rwandans consider a man as the only powerful person.

Nevertheless, the reality is that nothing can happen without participation of men and women. In all NGO’s activities, objectives cannot be achieved if men don’t participate. The chairman of RWAMREC has mentioned that constructive ideas are expected to flow from participants so that we can all understand the real role of men in the process of positive changes in the society.

For the power and the responsibility of the men, the participants have set their thoughts, the main noted words were: Human being, model, witness, risk-taker, protector, Audacious, power, dictator, retaliator, leader, father, security,

Looking at noted words the main common ideas were powerful, superiority, responsibility, positive image; unfortunately all the above-mentioned powers of a man are exercised to women, children and subordinates. This is the real and big problems as participants cannot discover that those powers of a man are firstly supposed to be exercised to himself so that he can be enabled to solve all societal problems around him and within himself.

This means that the way we perceive a man is the one that shapes him the way he is so as to violate the society believing that he is doing right.

Some challenges: 

•  Dominant culture
•   Suspicion
•  Humiliation

Strategies to support men in the fighting against GBV:

•  Listen to and comfort them
• Trust them
• Fight against GBV
•  Promote change

Challenges to supporting men:

•  Resistance and terror/ fear
•  Lack of trust in men
• Stick on superiority and culture advantages.
• Lack of dialogue with others

Reasons of menengage:

•  Both genders are called upon
• Men’s role in society
•  Relevance to adopt positive masculinity behavior
•  Etc.

FIRST AID TRAINING

A generous donor recently made it possible for 52 women from the Aspire Rwanda programme to attend a training course led by the Rwandan Red Cross.  The course gave the women practical tools that they could use to help others in their community and to gain employment.

 

 Some of the Aspire women with their Red Cross course completion certificates

The Red Cross course provided specialised training in the following:

·         General first aid;

·         Burns prevention and care (burns are common in children, especially from paraffin lamps);

·         Problematic and emergency labour assistance;

·         Introduction to basic counselling skills.

The course was three days long, and the Red Cross was so impressed by the Aspire women that they gave Aspire an extra day of training  to cover some additional topics. 

 Red Cross course completion ceremony

Importantly, the women took the course shortly before Genocide Memorial Day on 7^th April, commemorating the 1994 Rwanda genocide.  This is an extremely difficult time for the people of Rwanda, many of whom experience re-traumatisation and depression during the month-long time of remembrance. The Aspire women reported that this year the Red Cross training in basic mental health made them feel better equipped to cope with their own trauma and that of their family and others.

Additionally, the training means the women are now eligible to be employed by the Rwandan Red Cross in cases of emergency in Kigali or surrounding areas.

Peace Ruzage, Aspire’s CEO, and Aspire participants have requested further Red Cross training.