About ETF

Our Organization is called Empower the Future and our goal is to help street children.

WHO WE ARE

The majority of the children who we help are girls because of the higher risk of getting HIV, unwanted pregnancies and the general lack of safety while living on the street. However, we help all street children.

We help street children by reuniting them with their families or creating a foster family situation.

We prepare and send these children back to school by providing them with school fees, uniforms and other important materials.

Part of making this sustainable is that we find individual sponsors for each child that is accepted into our organization.

We also offer weekend activities so they have less opportunity to roam the streets. These activities consist of various craft skills like sewing, crocheting, painting and we provide a safe environment for them to hangout in together. Plus we are also teaching them a reproductive health education course to better empower them to stay safe.

Once a child is accepted into our organization we don’t just help that one child. We help their whole family.

We help their whole family by providing supplemental food to the household each month. This will last long enough for them to finish the life skills course we offer.

The life skills course is for the parents of each household. This course is teaching them sewing, basket weaving, woodworking or something along these lines.

OUR TEAM

Meet our Team

We Work Together To Help The Kids To Come From Street And Go Back To School!

EMILE KAYITARE

CEO AND CO-FOUNDER

Emile is our big-hearted founder and CEO. His passion for helping youth has always been a big part of who he is. He has been an educator in high school since 2015 and enjoys spending time with young people. He is always looking for a way to help more people.

BREANNE NDAYAMBAJE

CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF AUDITOR

Breanne is our hardworking member of the organization and is always looking for opportunities to make connections with people. She heads the team of our internal auditors. She loves children and wants every child to live in a loving home.

THEODOMIR MBONYUMUGENZI

CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR

Since 2015, Theodomir has been a head teacher at private elementary schools in Rwanda. His passion for helping needy people has pushed him to join Empower the Future Organization. The mission of the organization matches with his of helping needy people, especially children.

JUSTIN TUYISHIMIRE

PROGRAMS DIRECTOR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

Justin is our super busy and always on the go Programs Director and Social Affairs. He has been an educator in high schools since 2014 and loves helping children.

ALEXIS GASIGWA

ACCOUNTANT

ALEXIS is our trusted accountant. He keeps everything organized and up to date. He loves children and helping in any way he can.

BALUKU BOAZ

RESOURCE MOBILIZATION DIRECTOR

Boaz is our Resource Mobilization Director. He is incharge of recruitment and sourcing for funds. He is very organized and a great leader for our Resource mobilization team. He loves helping children and wants them to have the best they can.

SAMUEL BENEGUSENGA

SOCIAL MEDIA AND WEB MANAGER

Samuel is in charge of managing our website and social media platforms. He is a teacher by profession. He has been a web designer for two years. He believes in serving others. He’s a smiling guy

ZACHEE ISHIMWE

Zachee is a member of our IT department and a young Software developer with a heart for helping others. He works on our social media platforms and website. He loves kids and doesn’t think twice to help if it comes to save a street child!

CHRISTINE DUSABIMANA

LIFE SKILLS MANAGER

Since 2017, Christine has been sewing and creating beautiful clothes, jewelry and decorations for many individuals in Rwanda. She is our Life skills Manager and has great love for the moms and dads in our program.

MALACHI

CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST

Malachi is our child psychologist and friend to all. He does his best to understand all children and find a way he can be helpful to them. He teaches children about reproductive health education courses and gets to interact with them in a very personal way. He loves them with all his heart and gives them his very best. He is a qualified teacher, with a great experience of working with children.

PAUL HABUMUGISHA

PHOTOGRAPHER.

Paul is a member of our IT department and photographer. He loves being around the children we are helping and always has a smile on his face.

MWAMBARANGWE ANGELIQUE

Life Skills Assistant

Angelique is a hardworking mom. She always keeps a smile on her face. She was once a student in our sewing class. She decided to keep working with us and earn a living. She is among the great team of moms that produce all the beautiful sewing products from our organization.

MUREKATETE CHANTAL

Life Skills Assistant

Chantal is a very hardworking mom with a great experience in sewing. She was once a student in our sewing class. She decided to keep working with us and earn a living. She is among the great team of moms that produce all the beautiful sewing products from our organization.

NIYONSABA BETTY

Life Skills Assistant

Betty is a hardworking mom. She is always silent but focussed to her work. She was once a student in our sewing class. She decided to keep working with us and earn a living. She is among the great team of moms that produce all the beautiful sewing products from our organization.

MUKABUTERA MADOLIENE

Life Skills Assistant

Madolene is a humble mom who loves helping. She was once a student in our sewing class. She decided to keep working with us and earn a living. She is among the great team of moms that produce all the beautiful sewing products from our organization.

BAHATI

Life Skills Assistant

Bahati is a humble dad. He trains dads in woodworking skills. He has practical experience in woodworking and loves what he does.

OUR PROGRAMS

CHILD IN FAMILY PROGRAM

ETF team members gather general information on each street child to know better how to assist them. Some children have living families and we work to reunite them. Some children do not have a living or local family so we create a foster family situation for them.

We also follow-up on families regularly.

We provide supplemental food, clothes and hygiene materials to help the families monthly.

INFORMAL EDUCATION PROGRAM

This program entails preparing the children in our organization to go back to school by refreshing them with basics in their grade level and providing crafting skills over the weekends.

We also provide a reproductive health education course to the teenage aged children to help keep them safe.

LIFE SKILLS TRAINING PROGRAM

Our ETF team understands that if we want to keep children from returning to the streets, we need to empower their parents/guardians with skills to be successful parents. We offer a sewing/crafting life-skills course to the mothers and a woodworking/carpentry life-skills course to the fathers. We are continuously empowering the parents with parenting techniques to help them communicate as a family and be responsible parents.

FORMAL EDUCATION PROGRAM

This program entails us preparing the children in our organization

We make sure all children accepted into our program return to school and we assist families with school fees for all other children in each household. We work to find sponsors for former street children to encourage them to stay in school and to make it sustainable for our organization.

SPONSOR A PROGRAM

MONTHLY FOOD SUPPORT

We provide supplemental food to each family monthly. This helps the children to stay home while their parents learn a skill that will provide for them for a long term. If you are interested in helping in this area, here are some ideas;

$30 per family for one month of food

$90 for 5 sacks of rice

$80 for 10 sacks of corn flour

$180for 15 sacks of beans

$900 per month for all families in our program

LIFE SKILLS TRAINING

We teach a life-skill of sewing/crafting or woodworking to the parents in our program. This life-skill will eventually provide income for their family and all basics to their children. If you are interested in donating to this program here are a few ideas;

$50 Woodworking materials

$40 Sewing/Crafting materials

$90 Woodworking tools to give as a graduation gift to a dad after finishing our program.

$150 Sewing Machine to give as a graduation gift to a mom after finishing our program

GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING

The children in our program are former street children and have many psychological battles to work through. We have a professional Child Psychologist providing guidance and counseling as we continue to help these children. We also educate them on reproductive education courses to help better prepare and protect them in the future. If you are interested in helping with this area, here are some ideas;

$30 for materials to be used in a reproductive health session.

$180 monthly salary for a Child Psychologist.

FORMAL EDUCATION

One of the main areas of focus with helping these street children is getting them back in school. School fees include uniforms, books/pens, school bags and tuition. If you are interested in helping us get more children back in school here are some ideas;

$50 for one elementary aged child for a year in school

$50 for one high school aged child for a year in school

SPONSOR A CHILD

To help the children and families in our programs receive the help they need for a long term, we have created a sponsorship program. To learn more about sponsoring a child in our program, please visit the link below.

FAQ

What are your main activities?

We help street children return home to their families or we create a foster family situation when needed.

We help the children get back to school by providing school fees and finding them a sponsor.

We teach the parents of children in our program a life skill. Currently we teach sewing, crafting, weaving to the moms and woodworking to the dads.

We provide a Mentor-ship program for all parents in our program. This is basically teaching them how to be good and responsible parents.

We provide supplemental food to each family monthly.

We celebrate birthdays and Christmas events for children in our programs.

What inspired you to start this NGO?

The love for helping needy children inspired us to start this journey.

There are other NGOs in Rwanda that help street children however, we are the only organization that helps the entire family of the street child. This makes it sustainable and lasts long term.

What are your long term goals?

To create a self-sustainable home that gives hope, love, respect, care and security to all members of the family.

What kind of kids do you support?

We are only able to support street children, in Gasabo District, at this time.

What support do you provide to the kids in your programs?

Reunite them with their families or create a foster family.

Send children back to school and pay school fees. Plus, we try to find sponsors for all the children in our program to make our organization more sustainable.

Buy supplemental food monthly for the families in our program.

What criteria do you consider when accepting new children into your organization?

A child to be accepted into our organization must be a street child or a sibling of a street child.

Do you support the parents of the children in your programs?

Yes, we understand that the root cause for the child to go to the street originates from the family.

What support do you give to the parents of kids?

Life-Skills Program-teaching moms sewing and dads woodworking

Mentor-ship Program- teaching parents to be better and responsible parents

Monthly supplemental food

How do you use the donations you receive?

All sponsor related donations go to the children in our programs.

All other donations are spent on our programs and keeping our organization running. We pride ourselves on honesty and transparency.

How do you ensure that you use donations properly

We create monthly reports and have an auditing system quarterly to keep us on track.

When do you release children from your programs?

We release a child from our program once they have accomplished secondary school.

We release parents and families from our programs within 1 year of starting their Life-skills training.

Do you have other activities that can support your NGO when donations are absent?

Selling products produced by moms and dads in our programs.

Do you have partnerships with international NGOs?

We are creating connections with big international NGOs.

Where is your work based?

Kagugu/Kinyinya/Gasabo District, Kigali Rwanda. Planning to extend to other districts.

How can someone donate to your NGO?

Via; Paypal, Visa cards, credit cards, Mastercards, and venmo

Why do you focus on girls?

We help all street children. We tend to focus more on girls because of the higher risk they have of getting HIV and unwanted pregnancies.

What are your core values?

Integrity, Perseverance, Discipline, Prevention, Commitment, Accountability, teamwork and Transparency.

What is your NGO in two sentences?

Without them… Where is our future?

BLOG

Please work on the blog, it seems inactive.

ETF SHOP

We take kids from the street and reunite them with their families. We help their moms and dads with life skills to help them be self-sufficient. This is a shop for products made by moms. Shopping here, you assist the moms and dads so that they can take care of their families themselves.

VOLUNTEERING

Volunteer with us as a professional

Make a long-lasting change by sharing your skills with some of the neediest people in the world.

While working with Empower the Future you will have a handful of opportunities to use your skills and professional experience to create lasting change.

You will use your inspiration, expertise, and practical skills to empower people to access quality education and livelihood opportunities.

Volunteering will change your life.

Volunteering with Empower the Future is a unique experience. You will benefit from many opportunities for both personal and career development. You will not only be visiting new places but also getting involved in humanitarian work among new people with cultures different from yours.

There are several ways that individuals who are passionate about working with women’s economic empowerment, uplifting former street youth, and educating our young children can get involved. The following are some of the ways people can volunteer with us:

Working with our staff