RWANDA
The RDDC has worked in Rwanda since 2008. It administers two ongoing projects The Water Project (Rugerero, Gisenyi) and the Youth Talent Development Agency (Kigali). These projects are implemented in conjunction with local partner organizations: the National Youth Council, Red Cross Rwanda, and Amizero Dance Kompagnie.
The Water Project
The Water Project is the premiere program run by RDDC. Every year, RDDC works with 100 children in Rugerero, a survivor village near the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ethnically diverse children participate in daily dance workshops and social dialogue sessions discussing safe water practices, water conservation and basic health. At the conclusion of the program, the children perform a dance-theater choreographic work that portrays good and poor water practices before an adult audience. Thus, the children become community educators.
Story from the field...
Jean Bosco Rukirande of Red Cross Rwanda…
“The problem in this community is health and water,” Jean Bosco told Rebecca Davis Dance Company as we toured the survivor village of Rugerero in Northern Rwanda in 2009. “Engineers Without Borders has come here every year. They build water systems and latrines for us, but the people think ‘I have water today’, and forget about conserving it for tomorrow. We need to change the mindset of our villagers.”
“What about using dance to teach youth about health and water conservation?” Rebecca said.
The following year, Rebecca Davis Dance Company partnered with Red Cross and Engineers Without Borders to bring two dance instructors (an American & a Rwandan) to Rugerero to run a program for a diverse group of children that combined dance exercises with lessons on community water practices and sanitation.
On November 29, 2010, 64 children performed dance, drama and song to demonstrate good and bad water practices. They presented their work before the District Sector Office and the whole community attended. After the performance, Jean Bosco turned to me and said, “Yes – that’s what we needed – dance. This is the first time our children are thinking analytically about how they use water. It’s spreading to their families and throughout the community because it’s fun for them. Now we need to do this in all our villages…so when is your company coming back?”
Youth Talent Development Agency
RDDC has been invited to partner with the National Ministry of Youth to create one of five pillar programs at Maison des Jeunes de Kimisagara (MJK) in Kigali. MJK is a facility that serves several hundred street children and orphans from around the city everyday. This program has a government-designated goal of creating training and employment opportunities in the performing arts for street children of all ethnic backgrounds in Rwanda.
Every November and December, RDDC hires an American instructor and employs at least one Rwandan dance instructor from Amizero to lead a 6-week training program at MJK. The program culminates in the presentation of a choreographic production on the theme of reconciliation. In the future, MJK and the Ministry of Youth may choose to tour these productions throughout the country and the Great Lakes Region.
The MJK program includes a “youth leadership workshop” led by RDDC to give the top performing students training in the skills necessary to continue the program after the lead instructors depart. The program then has the ability to continue year-round on a reduced schedule until the international dance instructors return the following November.