Non-Governmental Organisations Empowering Women in Rwanda
Dr.Isaboke Peter Kennedy Nyataya PhD*
Citation : Dr.Isaboke Peter Kennedy Nyataya, Non-Governmental Organisations Empowering Women in Rwanda International Journal of Research in Sociology and Anthropology 2018, 4(4) : 15-27
Women's empowerment is viewed as the capacity of women to increase their own self-reliance and internal strength, besides, being the right to determined choices and to influence the direction of change through the ability to gain control over material and non-material resources as well. It involves gaining voice, having mobility and, too, establishing a public presence. Rwanda has performed a bit well on the issue of empowering women and as a result, is, now, regarded as one of the best countries in the world that has managed to meet women's special needs and aspirations. The Government of Rwanda has demonstrated strong determination and political will directed towards empowering women in the country. However, the issues of women empowerment in the country, today, still poses a challenge to the Government of the day due the fact that the community has not fully understand the essence of women's empowerment for the process is not one- man game but that that demands collective action through interested and committed partners to the cause. The present work mainly intended to find out the contribution of Non Governmental Organiation, Women for Women Rwanda has made towards women's empowerment in the country. Besides, seeking to know the nature of challenges, the NGO has been facing and practical approaches used to overcome them. The findings of the study are likely to help the Local Government to have adequate knowledge on the NGO and the impact of its intervention in the field of women's empowerment and, too, facilitate in the designing of the District Women Empowerment Plan. Other NGOs operating in the country along sides with their respective donors/financiers are the other likely beneficiaries of the present study. Researchers and academics may, too, make some gains out of it. Case study research design was adopted for the study and content analysis method, focus group discussion method and interview method were used in collecting the required data from the scientifically selected respondents(100), through the use of stratified and simple random sampling techniques. The collected data were then recorded and presented, and analysed by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences [SPSS]. It was found that the NGO has made significant in-roads and contributions towards women's empowerment in the area through the impartation of informal and formal training to its chosen beneficiaries in particular and the community in the area in general, which have helped build a strong base for girls and women's socio economic empowerment and development.It was observed that Women for Women Rwanda, was catering for a high number of beneficiaries that are vulnerable and needy and yet the NGO did not have adequate financial resources necessary to cover all the entire area of its operation and fields of intervention with a view to empowering more girls and women and girls in need. There is need for the Governmental Organisations and NGOs to continuously make efforts directed towardssensitising, educating, mobilising communities and advocating for women's empowerment in Gasabo District and its environs with a view to providing girls and women with appropriate and adequate information concerning their basic rights and how to access and acquire basic legal services.