Community Empowerment in Rwanda

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Brief Description:
- Enjoy the unique weather offered by the country of a thousand hills while contribute to the preservation of the biodiversity through capacity building
- Gain the Rwandan experience through day to day interaction with local communities
- Become more passionate about your major and propel your career with international experience
- Make memories you will never forget during your free time like after work hours, weekend and day off excursions in a full comfort company of teammates and other travelers
- Visit various wonders that this beautiful country offers including hiking, visiting national parks, beautiful lakes and beautiful beaches, learn the culture through story telling museums

Detailled Description:

This programme targets Historically Marginalised People which; is traditional forest dwellers living on hunting and fruits gathering. Unfortunately this way of living is no longer possible in Rwanda following the creation of national parks. A a result, this population has been evicted from their dwells for the creation of national parks without any compensation living them one of the poorest community nationwide. Through this programme, Partners For Conservation ensures they acquire basic knowledge, skills and related facilities necessary for them to adopt new way of living alternatively to illegal harvesting park's natural resources

This programme involves community projects, social integration and economic development projects

Volunteer for this programme will be working with local beneficiaries and Partners For Conservation field staff including (Project Manager, and Technicians) and other stakeholders including conservation and development agencies as well as the local authorities with a particular focus on:

• Community Based Organizations development and Management,
• Community Based Organisations capacity building
• Grants and proposal writing,
• Fundraising, website management
• Poverty alleviation
• Social and economic integration
• Women and youth empowerment
• Financial literacy
• Social justice
• Community projects development and management
• Rural development issues
• Human Rights issues
• Gender issues
• Crop management
• Livestock management

In order to provide volunteers with many opportunities to learn and contribute to community conservation efforts in Rwanda, volunteers are elected to join the team that represents Partners For Conservation in functions, meetings and other conservation gathering.

The volunteer will be based and operate in Musanze district. Musanze is a district in the Northern Province of Rwanda. Its capital city is Ruhengeri which; is also sometimes known as Musanze. Musanze is Rwanda's most mountainous district, containing the largest part of the Volcanoes National Park and its head office at Kinigi. Five of the eight volcanoes of the Virunga chain (Karisimbi, Bisoke, Sabyinyo, Gahinga and Muhabura) are within the district boundaries. It is also in this district that most of Rwanda's mountain gorillas are found, making it the most popular tourist destination in the country. Musanze's capital, Ruhengeri, is one of the largest cities in Rwanda and serves as a hub for tourists.

It is easy for a volunteer to access the rest corners of the country from Musanze for example Musanze is at 1h drive from Gisenyi and the Democratic Republic of Congo border. Gisenyi is known for its super weekends for water sports lovers. Musanze is also at 2h30 drive from Kigali and at 25 minutes to the Cyanika, the Uganda border.


Typical Day:

A day as a volunteer varies on a daily basis. However, Partners For Conservation ensures volunteer intervention supports the necessary need and where a volunteer is happy to intervene. Partners For Conservation supports volunteer’s intervention by providing a comprehensive team involving among others a driver (where necessary), a local interpreter and senior officer/ project manager. This is key to ensure there’s excellent communication on and off the field for a successful intervention and teamwork.

Working days are Mondays to Fridays. Except Mondays which; is a planning and evaluation meetings, the rest of the days are reserved for field works. Field works start by 8:00am to 2:00pm. Partners For Conservation respects days- off and weekends. Volunteers staying for over 6 months are entitled to a leave of 10 days in conformity of the local labor law.

Free Time:

A volunteer is free agent on the free, public day and on leave. However, volunteers are required to follow rules provided by where they stay this implies that they are called to communicate about their time in and out of the lodge for example. Partners For Conservation recommends the best activities based to those available in and around the town although volunteers are free to choose according to their preferences. For volunteers looking to travel away from their bases (for holidays for example,) they’re requested to dully fill leave application forms available at Partners For Conservation. Volunteers are free to do whatever they want except political activities.