Enjoying a convertible bed made by RNH students
Rwanda Nook Hub (RNH) – a community based center which trains youth school drop outs to acquire life skills, using an internet-based self-learning as a model, has graduated the fifth cohort with more advanced innovations to sell on the Rwandan market.
The graduation was held this August 9, 2024 at Gahanga sector, witnessed 35 students, who underwent a 6-month training, showcase high-end hand-made products which included eco-friendly and space-saving home equipment,new fashion designs, baking and hair dressing skills, among others.
The nook hub, a project run by Dream Village Rwanda, is cost free (no learning fees) and meant to enable disadvantaged young Rwandans to learn hands-on skills and from their areas of interest come up with projects to create consumable products, become job creators or employable on the labor market to improve their welfare.
All that is needed is for a parent to send their child to the hub, and they spend time on the internet learning by themselves but come up with a project idea which they will showcase after for six months of self-learning.
Graduates celebrate a life-changing achievement of coming from desperate to hopeful
This year, the students come up with stunning product creations that can make life easy for persons living in small spaced homes, fashion design made from local cloth material, baking high-end cakes, and rare saloon fashion designs.
For example, a three-man team composed of Prince Mugisha, Yves Nkurunziza, Theophile Hakuzimana created a convertible mobile kitchen which uses both a leg-pumped water and can be connect to tap water to enable users who have limited living room space to live-in to have a kitchen inside their house.
“The mobile kitchen has a gas tank space, washing tap tab, and a food and utensils storage area which makes it easy to cook without going outside your living room,” said Prince Mugisha.
Yves Nkurunziza said that the convertibility and storage aspect of their design is a new creation that can help a large population of persons without kitchens in the community.
Convertible bed that can save space in a home
Two other teams showcased wood and metal work products that caught eyes at the graduation event. The created products included a portable and convertible shelf and wardrop which can respectively be turned into a dining table, and a bed.
Another graduating team shows off a convertible shelf that can become a dining table for three
The graduates said that the project has changed their lives and with these acquired skills they are ready to enter the job and labor market to create start-up and mass production.
RNH 5th cycle graduates
According to Rwanda’s 2021 Labour Force Survey, youth have the highest rate of unemployment with 20.3 percent, against 12.7 percent for adults.
Sylivia Ingabire, the Dream Village Programs Director said that after five years, the project activities have grown and come up with very creative, smart students who are ready for the labor market.
“This year, we have the smartest cycle of graduating students, who have shown improvement in their self learning skills and creations that we expect to bring competition on the local SME market,” said Ingabire.
Sylivia Ingabire says she is proud of the RNH 5th cycle achievements made this year
Ingabire said that this was made possible because of the parents’ willingness to send their children to the center and the zeal to succeed for most of them who were considered failures in life.
The model is set in a way that a student acquires life skills and uses that advantage of a government recognized certificate to seek employment in the SME sector or choose to start their own start-up business for mass production.
Epimaque Utazirbanda (left) celebrates with the 5th graduation cycle
“So far, among the 250 youth who have undergone the self-teaching program 80% of them have jobs and we have seen improvement in working space among others,” said Epimaque Utazirbanda, the RNH Manager.
This year also witnessed the Gahanga based nook hub solve one of the former challenges, of working space, faced by the previous cohorts; by shifting to a new and spacious facility within the Gahanga area.
Also this year, graduates didn’t complain about the previous limitations which included availability of computers, reliable Wi-Fi internet and lack of onsite teachers, raw materials, as seen at the previous graduations.
At the previous cohort graduation, Dream Village Rwanda officials revealed plans to scale-up this model of learning by opening up more 10 nook hubs across the country to reach other disadvantaged youths in Rwanda.
RNH 5th cycle ready to join the fashion SME sector
Gahanga local leaders and RNH partners promised to support the project and encourage young disadvantaged Rwandans to take advantage of the nook hub which has changed lives of many beneficiaries whom most of them are currently have start-up business and are self employed.
Local leaders and RNH partners appreciate the results from the 5th graduation cycle
