REPUBLIC OF RWANDANATIONAL REHABILITATION SERVICE

The government and its stakeholders have sustained education and sensitisation campaigns against the potential causes and consequences of indulging in delinquency. There are ongoing campaigns against; drug/substance abuse, alcoholism, prostitution among others, especially targeting; the youth, students, street children, prostitutes among others. The government through the Ministry of Education together with the Ministry of health are working closely with anti-drug clubs in schools to sensitise students against drug abuse and other leading causes of delinquency. To ensure sustainable mindset change, the lessons on drug abuse prevention and management are scheduled to be integrated into the education curricula especially for secondary schools and higher learning institutions.

A number of relevant policies have been developed to provide national orientation into interventions to prevent and respond to cases of delinquency as summarized below;

The national ECD policy is built on 5 major pillars including; Health, Education, Nutrition, Sanitation and child protection for both the child and their parents. The policy puts it’s upon parents to be the primary caregivers supposed to instil the right discipline within their children from their infancy to their childhood protecting them from exposure to anything that is harmful to their bodies and damaging to their souls.

The Policy envisages a long term strategy to reintegrate children into family environments to receive parental love, care and guidance from bad behaviours. Following this policy, the national child care reform strategy was developed and a number of children are being reintegrated into their homes and other foster families. This is a sustainable solution to the issues of street children and juvenile delinquency addressed under this policy.

One of the overriding objectives of the national decentralization policy is to translate National Development aspirations into local economic development, creating employment opportunities and ultimately reducing poverty. This lays a platform for preventing young people from indulging into acts of delinquency.