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Young Swedes help Rwandan women

30 March, 2008

STOCKHOLM, Sweden. Some US$900,000 raised by Swedish teenagers is giving young female refugees in Rwanda the chance to become more independent and to lead productive lives.

Two young Swedish women, Nadia Chakir and Enna Gerin, recently visited Gihembe camp to see how the UNHCR-run education project was being implemented with the funds raised during the annual "Operation a Day's Work" campaign by 80,000 students in 250 high schools across Sweden.

Chakir and Gerin work for the Swedish Student Organization, which stages the day's work campaign to fund an educational project in a developing country. This year's project in Gihembe and three other Rwandan camps is being implemented by UNHCR partner FAWE (Forum for African Women Educationalists).

"This has to be the best follow-up visit ever for our organization," Gerin enthused on her return to Stockholm. "Everything was smooth sailing and effective; everybody was so deep into the project and committed to it."

The young women saw how the Swedish funds were being used to pay for the primary and secondary school fees, books and uniforms of 3,500 girls in Gihembe, Kiziba, Nyabiheke and Kigeme camps. The project also helps more than 500 school drop-outs – some of them young mothers – by teaching them how to read and write and providing classes in skills such as knitting, tailoring, hairdressing, cookery and handicrafts.

SOURCE: UNHCR.org