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In Sports Initiative, Caritas Rwanda Targets Fathers on “positive parenting, crucial role” in Children Maturity

Silas Isenjia

By Silas Isenjia

Kigali, 22 March, 2025 / 6:23 pm (ACI Africa).

Caritas Rwanda has reached out to fathers in a football match initiative aimed fostering “positive parenting” in the landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge.

In a March 19 report that the humanitarian and development establishment of Rwanda’s Catholic Bishops, the Episcopal Conference of Rwanda (CEPR), published, the sports initiative, which aimed to raise awareness about the “crucial role” of fathers in the maturing process of their children is part of Caritas Rwanda’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) project.

The report indicates that the football match that Plan Rwanda International funded aimed at “raising awareness among the parents on positive parenting focusing on the importance of fathers’ crucial role in the growth and development of their children.”

After the football match that was played in Nyaruguru District of Rwanda’s Catholic Diocese of Gikongoro, local leaders and project staff are said to have “delivered messages and posed questions to underscore the crucial role fathers play in the growth and development of their children.”

Speaking to participants after the match, the ECD Coordinator in Nyaruguru District, Nsabumuremyi Janvier, reflected on the six pillars of the project, which include adequate nutrition; health; water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); child protection and inclusiveness; opportunities for early learning; and parenting education.

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Janvier is said to have urged fathers to “play a role as well as mothers in ensuring the implementation of these six pillars.”

The ECD official in Rwanda lauded Caritas Rwanda and Plan International Rwanda for their involvement in ECD activities in the district, including maintaining ECD centers and homes, providing various necessary equipment, training caregivers, and assisting parents in providing food for their children.

The Caritas Rwanda March 19 report indicates that participants in the football match activity also took part in a question-and-answer session, which aimed to highlight the crucial role fathers play in the growth and development of their children.

The report further indicates that a similar event had been realized in Gatsibo District in the Catholic Archdiocese of Kigali on March 14 and that another event had been scheduled on March 21 in Bugesera District in the same Metropolitan See.

An earlier report of March 18 following the football match in Gatsibo District indicates that the event aimed 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.”

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The event also sought to “use football to foster positive interactions between parents and their children; and to establish a forum for fathers to gain experiences from father role models, enhancing parenting skills.”

The sports initiative sought to “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,” according to the report that Caritas Rwanda published on March 18.

Silas Isenjia

Silas Mwale Isenjia is a Kenyan journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communication from Moi University in Kenya. Silas has vast experience in the Media production industry. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.

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