MBWIRANDUMVA is a local non-profit making organization with legal status, legally registered by RGB and it has created in 1996 with mission to deal with gender issues of vulnerable raped women and girls infected by HIV/AIDS and others were left widows with large number of children born on genocide perpetrators who were living in critical life conditions with poor health, poverty, hopeless, trauma and stigma feelings.
It started with an encounter that the funder Mrs. Beatrice MUKANSINGA had with a young mother and genocide survivor who wanted to abandon her child with Beatrice as she became pregnant after having being raped. The child was a constant reminder of her humiliation and she was unable to raise the child since she was poor.
This encounter convinced Beatrice that she had to take action to help her and other women with similar problems. Beatrice asked her not to abandon her child but instead go home and gather women and girls so that she could see how she is going to help them. She started the organization ‘SPEAK ‘I M LISTENINING’ which in Kinyarwanda means MBWIRANDUMVA and since its creation, many thousands of vulnerable women and girls have been assisted through psychosocial counselling and healing wounds, supporting financially the women infected with HIV/AIDS by abusers to get life through doing small businesses generating income activities and being away from stigma, vocational training skills to vulnerable young women and boys.
However, today; financial funds support remained a key serious problem to continue the stated above charity activities where psychosocial healing and counselling needs and expenses realized each year are much greater than the organization can meet. Currently the organization has great difficulty to maintain and expand its program activities due to the limited financial resources.
Nevertheless, there is an average of 80 girls and boys graduates every year in vocational training skills.
The Mission of MBWIRANDUMVA
- Empowering vulnerable women (widows, orphans and girls) to gain control over their own lives
- To address gender issues related to violence and its consequences against female
Vision: MBWIRANDUMVA Initiative’s vision is to help vulnerable young female and women victims of violence, rape to get out of crisis, sustain themselves and live-in dignity with social justice.