Ten years after the devastating genocide in Rwanda, young people in
Butare organized to rebuild and develop their country by forming
YADDI, an association designed to "bridge the development information
gap among young people and network their efforts for sustainable
development." According to Executive Director and Founder Cleophas
Kanamugire, by both educating youth and employing them as a resource
for development, YADDI acts upon its founding belief that "in every
society youth are the major tools for change."

Youth comprise nearly two-thirds of the Rwandan population, nearly
all of whom were deeply affected by the Rwandan genocide through
either direct participation or the loss of family members and
neighbors. By both providing opportunities for reconciliation and
community engagement and developing young people´s strengths and
skills, YADDI is pursuing an ambitious agenda to cultivate a new
generation of leaders. YADDI´s programs focus primarily on engaging
young people who have left primary school or high school and have
little or no opportunities to complete their formal education to work
on projects that include eradicating illiteracy, promoting peace,
information technology support and training, and HIV/AIDS education.
These various programs are united by their emphasis on building upon
and further developing youth capacity through information sharing and
peer-to-peer education.

One of YADDI´s key initiatives is its Youth Peace Education Program.
In 1994, young people were influenced by political actors to
participate in mass killings and human rights violations. Responding
to the continued need for youth to become informed about human rights
and engaged in conflict prevention, YADDI developed the Youth Peace
Education Program to spread information about conflict and violence,
peace, and human rights to young people through young people´s work.
In addition to educating young volunteers about the basics and
implementation techniques of human rights principles, YADDI provides
them with basic materials for education campaigns and connects them
to primary and secondary schools, orphanages, and youth serving NGOs.
In this manner, these peer to peer exchanges focus on strengthening
understanding and tolerance amongst Rwandan youths-a critical step to
healing the feelings of mistrust and hate left amongst communities in
the wake of the genocide.

Another of YADDI´s key programs is designed to reduce insecurity for
young people and orphans in particular. According to the 2005 Rwanda
Demographic and Health Survey, 29% of the population under eighteen
is classified as orphans or critically vulnerable, owing to the
genocide, HIV/AIDS rates, poverty, and other socio-economic factors.
The Ministry of Gender and Family Planning has overseen the creation
of hosting centers that care for many of these displaced children,
yet children´s rights within these centres are often not clearly
understood by either the children or staff, leading to mistreatment
and high dropout rates. In order to encourage young people to take
an active role in improving this national situation, YADDI developed
the Promotion of Children Rights in Hosting Centres program. The
program engages young Rwandans to work with and educate children and
staff at the centres in their daily activities and to discuss
children´s rights, as well as to cultivate a sense of responsibility
amongst communities on the need to protect those rights. In this
manner, youth in the program are becoming leaders in building a
national understanding of the rights and responsibilities of young
people.

Through this program, YADDI hopes to plant the seeds that will
cultivate and mobilize a nation-wide children´s rights movement. In
order to generate a wide network of organizations committed to
promoting these activities and reach as many young Rwandans as
possible, YADDI has developed significant partnerships and relations
with local and international universities, NGOs focused on HIV/AIDS
work, the NationalYouth Council, and other youth focused
international organizations. In addition to sustaining and enlarging
existing programs, YADDI is currently working to establish a
satellite office in the Rwandan capital of Kigali to foster stronger
links between the government, local organizations, and resources,
while increasing the impact of YADDI´s work. Through bringing this
range of stakeholders together to support their programs, YADDI hopes
to continue building the skills of Rwandan youth and empowering them
as leaders with the knowledge and vision to bring about socio-
economic transformation for themselves and their communities in the
years to come.

Please contact Kanamugire Cleophas, Executive Director and Founder,
by email for further information: kacleophas@yahoo.fr ,
administration@yaddi.net