Why did the DPD Foundation get involved in Rwanda in particular?

After the genocide in the 1990s Rwanda continued to face huge development challenges. Although the country has achieved great success in many areas, there is a considerable backlog in child education: the enrolment rate in kindergartens and nursery schools, for example, is only 18 percent.

In order to effectively improve the conditions and educational opportunities for children, the DPD Foundation supported the aid organisation Plan International in various projects in Rwanda from 2016 to 2021. In a first step we funded the establishment of four early childhood education centres for children up to the age of six in the project "Early learning support for children". With this education project we succeeded in creating better prospects for around 2,000 children. Among other things three new early childhood development centres were built and equipped with play and learning materials. Fifty members of the community were trained as care-givers for small children and - in order to improve the economic situation of the families - 50 savings groups for parents were set up. This gives them the opportunity to save money and obtain small loans for investments.

In 2019 the second education project started: in this case the DPD Foundation provided funding for the three-year child aid project "Good education for children". This improved the educational situation of a total of 11,000 children in 20 schools and 25 kindergartens in the Bugesera and Nyaruguru regions.