‘Stuck’ in Rwanda
Saji Prelis (R) and Marc Sommers (L) at the GLPF
With one of the world’s youngest and poorest populations, Rwanda is seen as both a success story with a promising future and as an unequal society facing serious hurdles. Marc Sommers’ Stuck: Youth in Rwanda, to be published later this year, focuses on Rwandan youth who are ‘stuck,’ unable to achieve traditional adulthood despite vigorous effort. Some ‘failed adults’ migrate to Kigali, where their aim is survival. Sommers spoke about his research for the book at the recent Great Lakes Policy Forum, a monthly Washington DC Forum organized by Search for Common Ground. The Forum brings together diverse organizations and individuals to share information, learn from experts in the field, and discuss the challenges and the possible solutions to the region’s conflicts.
Sommers emphasized the challenges to become an adult according to Rwandan culture, which requires building a house, having a job, and getting married. Extreme poverty leaves young men unable to build their own house and forces many youth into urban settings where they seek alternative means of income. Some female youth end up in prostitution. Rwanda is facing a crisis as more and more youth become ‘failed men’ and ‘failed women,’ and strict housing and informal economy regulations make rural and urban youth lives much more difficult.
SFCG Children and Youth Director, Saji Prelis, who moderated the discussion said: “Sommers highlights a challenging proposition for both policy makers and practitioners: if one wants to help young women in Rwanda, then one needs to help young men first. The traditional dependence of womanhood on manhood is especially acute in places such as Rwanda where marriage is one defining factor of adulthood.”
Sommers’ research found a widening gap between what national and international agencies think youth should be doing and what youth priorities actually are. He believes that policy makers and practitioners need to develop a deeper understanding of what happens when youth cannot become adults.
Search for Common Ground focuses on children and youth in its Rwanda country program. To create a space where young people of all backgrounds can share their experiences and frustrations and discuss possible solutions to issues in their lives, SFCG produces a youth radio program: Urungano (“New Generation”) Urungano is aimed at teens and is written and hosted by a team of girls between 15 and 18, representing a diversity of Rwandan youth. Each episode covers a different issue affecting youth and gives a voice to the vulnerable group.
Through this radio program youth are able to speak out, learn about the problems their peers face, share information, and discuss ways forward. Additionally, the initiative prepares a new generation of professional journalists for Rwanda. One of these journalists, Diane, can be seen in the video below as she speaks about Urungano.
Urungano is broadcast on both Kigali’s Contact FM and Radio Salus in Butare on Saturdays at 5pm (GMT+2), and can be heard online at the same time on www.contactfm.rw
To learn about Search for Common Ground’s work in Rwanda, click here.
I urge all people to listen carefully to SFCG plans and strategies because it is youth based
makes political analysis in the great lakes region
Vive Search for Common Ground
Thanks for your support! Young people are such a large percent of Rwanda’s population and they have great power to catalyze change.
I think Such for common ground is just looking for money from donors by trading in unfounded research
How can you say that youth in Rwanda are worse than those in Burundi? When did you do this kind of fake
research. Why launch a research done on Rwanda in USA before you can share it with those concerned?
You should have shared it with those you call beneficiaries to validate it before taking it to the USA.
Anyhow your research is unfounded and I am sure you also believe that your book is full of lies.
I am just a concerned young Rwandan who does not agree with your research at all and who thinks that if
You are confident of what you have writen, you should share it with youth in Rwanda
So they speak for themselves rather than taking it to those who do not know Rwanda’s situation to mislead
them to get their dollar.
Hi Kamugisha,
This research was conducted by Marc Sommers. The book based on his research will be published later this year.
You can read notes from the forum where Marc presented his research here: http://www.sfcg.org/programmes/forums/pdf/GLPF%2002-10-11%20Summary%20Final.pdf
Perhaps if/when you read his book, you’ll see the reasoning and foundation for his arguments, which were not that youth in Rwanda are worse than those in Burundi but that he found Rwandan youth were less hopeful about their future prospects.