Our background

While the Rwandan citizens work hard to recover from the trauma of the past, it is the sole responsibility of the new generation to break the cycle of victimization and violence in order to build a stable foundation from the aftershock of their violent history.

Although Rwanda’s young people have more opportunities than their parents had, there is still more need to invest in the children in order to prepare the future stable families or community. There are still different issues to be addressed mainly family conflicts where the children are the primary victims. This leads to school dropout, delinquency, street children, malnutrition and the children are not involved in all actions which affect or concern their lives (low child participation).

The Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda affirms that the family, being the natural foundation of the Rwandan society, is protected by the State. It is pertinent to note that there is a need to strengthen the family ties as a foundation for the country’s holistic transformation; all starts within the family and therefore we should protect it from now and for generations to come. The government of Rwanda had set Integrated Child Rights Policy (ICRP) which comprises of seven thematic areas. These include Identity and Nationality, Family and Alternative care, Survival, Health and Standards of living, Education, Protection, Justice and Child Participation.

BCN is particularly reinforcing the “Child Participation” starting at family and community levels in order to transform children from passive recipients to active influencers.

The initiative started after observations, field work and assessments which revealed the breakdown of families as the main cause of children’s suffering or losing hope for their future. The demands for appropriate interventions addressing the above needs became evident.

Through the discussions with different people (children and adults), it has been realized that there is a need to pay much attention at family level (While putting the child at the centre) in order to prevent the family breakdown instead of waiting to provide response interventions. For addressing such issues, the children should be considered as active influencers in all actions concerning them both in their families and communities. This concluded to found BCN on June 8th ,2020. BCN is now officially recognized by Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) under No 1016/RGB/NGO/OC/03/2022.