Focus Media (Kigali)
Mercy Omuntu
8 July 2009
"Since I joined the Angels, I leant a lot in music, dance and games like football. I'm even the president of the entertainment club at my school and I intend to be an international football star in football, because the Angels showed me that I can be anything, so now I have the confidence to dream big. We train in lots of things like break dance, raga tone and music."
Steve, a 21-year-old student at Nyamata Secondary School, thinks that Angels has been a source of inspiration to him and many of his friends. He is not talking to us from beyond the grave, though. The Angels he is talking about are the Angels of the Light Generation, a cultural and humanitarian association for youth located in Nyakabanda, Kicukiro.
"The association was set up in 2006 with an aim to promote youth education, to keep young people busy and prevent them from being idle, because most of them had started indulging in prostitution and drugs abuse," explains Frank Jones Sayinzoga (a.k.a. the singer Frank Jay), the association's legal representative.
Today, the Angels' 30 staff members work with more than 150 youth, most of them under 16 and often orphaned or very vulnerable children. "Yet they have talents that not only bring sunshine into their lives but also put a smile on the faces of those around them," Sayinzoga says.
That also explains the name of the association, Angels of the Light Generation, according Frank Jay, because these are innocent young people who often find themselves in difficult and compromising situations.
"For me, I just take these kids as Angels," he says. "They are orphans, young and vulnerable, and they are manipulated by those who should protect them. They don't deserve any of this, so I thought we should treat them like Angels; they are tomorrow's generation."
Therefore, the association offers a variety of activities such as drama, dance, music and sports like football. "In this area of Nyakabanda, there were many orphans, with no one to support them and nothing to do; so we thought that if we taught them something beneficial and useful, they could be of importance to the society," Sayinzoga explains.
For instance, he says that the association organized the first Peace Festival in Kicukiro in 2007, a week of activities that included a dance competition. Then there were Nyakabanda football competitions for under-sixteen and a drama competition in between schools in Kicukiro.
Apart from such events, the association also has a weekly program on Saturday and Sunday during which rehearsals and discussions are held.
"Every Sunday we have a debate on the different aspects of life," says Frank Jay, adding that as both a cultural and humanitarian association, it also organizes practical training in computer skills and languages such as English. "Through these skills, we hope that Rwandan youth will be able to spread educational messages to young people in other countries-on AIDS, drugs abuse and fornication, among others."
However, there are lots of challenges the association has to overcome. Firstly, many of the children still don't go to school, so the association is trying to find solutions to get them education. That is complicated by the fact that the organization has to find sponsors to keep its activities going.
"We need to find donors who enable us run the association's activities more easily like taking the youth to participate in competitions abroad," Sayinzoga remarks.
However, things are not too bad. The organization already partners with UNFPA and is planning to expand its premises. Their focus now is to make Angels of the Light Generation a strong and successful NGO, both nationally and internationally. There is already an Angels branch in Goma, and another one will be set up soon in Burundi.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Focus Media. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
