Channel of Hope Ability Center is a wraparound education, rehabilitation and counselling center for children with disabilities and their parents in rural Rwanda. The center would provide life skills, vocational training, rehabilitation and respite for the children and their parents, leading to improved quality of life for children with disabilities.
Our Goal is to fill as many of the jobs as possible from either the parents of the children, or from the disability community as a whole, providing employment for those now thought of as unemployable.
Why do we need an Ability Center?
The parents in our program – mostly single parents or grandparents – need to work to provide the basic needs for their children but have no safe place to leave them where they will be cared for.
Many of the children and their families lack access to basic healthcare because of their location. Travel is difficult and expensive. Living Channel helps where we can, but we dream of the day we can build our disability center where we will provide healthcare, rehab, and sensory therapy in their local community.
Schooling and Vocational training in animal care and other skills will allow children with disabilities to be better accepted by their communities and help them contribute to their families income. Currently there is no place for children like Elizabeth, Mutoni, Kenny and others to get this kind of training. Our disability center will be the first of it's kind in Rwanda and will be a model leading the way to a better future for many children with disabilities across Rwanda.
Diet in rural Rwanda is often limited in variety and may be lacking in the essential nutrients children need, leading to stunted growth both physical and mentally. Our community garden helps families gain access to a wider variety of foods and allows them to test out new types of plants for better yields at low risk to themselves.
