As a creative way to engage the community and spread awareness on Positive Parenting, Caritas Rwanda in partnership with Gatsibo District, through the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Project funded by Plan International Rwanda, organized a football match between Murambi and Kiziguro Father Role Models. This event was held at Groupe Scholaire Rwimitereri, Murambi Sector in Gatsibo District on March 14, 2025.
The specific goals of this awareness campaign were to:
– Promote parental involvement, with a particular emphasis on fathers, in nurturing care tasks, gender transformative emphasizing the significance of shared responsibilities within the family unit;
– Use football as a means of fostering positive interactions between parents and their children;
– Establish a forum for fathers to gain experiences from father role models, enhancing parenting skills;
– Educate communities on the transformative impact of positive parenting practices in cultivating responsible children and how such practices can mitigate issues such as school dropouts, domestic violence and behaviour problems in the future.
In this community awareness promoting Positive Parenting, the Murambi Father Role Models team emerged victorious with a score of 5 against 0 of the Kiziguro team. The two teams received trophy cups each.
During the half-time, local leaders and project staff delivered messages highlighting the crucial role fathers play in the growth and development of their children. Following the messages, a question-and-answer session took place, and t-shirts were awarded to the winning participants.
Addressing participants, Naomy Mukagasana, the Gatsibo District employee in charge of Gender and Family Promotion, urged parents (both fathers and mothers) to take care of their children by giving them love, raising them in a proper manner and setting boundaries for what is and is not allowed, building their self-confidence, protecting them from the harm of technology and being loving parents to be a role model for them.
This awareness campaign will also be carried out in Nyaruguru on 18th March 2025 and in Bugesera on 21st March 2025.
