CEFORMI

The vision of CEFORMI is to provide practical life-skills to vulnerable and marginalized youth. With these skills, they should have a realistic chance for paid- or self-employment, work together in groups and learn to cope with difficult circumstances.

In conclusion, the target group is defined as:

- Youth (girls and boys) from 16 to 24 years of age. In most cases, they will be orphaned. They are poor and have no means to support their further education at Secondary School level, in case they had completed Primary Education at a good standard. However, many trainees enrolled at CEFORMI will have dropped out before they completed Primary School level education.
- The youth have a strong motivation to learn practical skills with which they can earn a living for themselves. This will often be in the form of working in "associations". This is demonstrated practically by things they make, the small trade they do etc. even before they start training. They are mature enough to know what they want to achieve in life, and have realistic aspirations and expectations. Motivated and potentially skilled trainees can be further supported after the first training phase that instructs especially practical crafts and basic life-skills, in a subsequent "Business Development Phase" where they are supported to set up their own small businesses. This should give most trainees a realistic change for self- or wage employment.
- CEFORMI will aim to enrol equal numbers of boys and girls (50/50) as this reflect on the needs in society in Rwanda, the general aim to do justice to gender equality and to create a ‘healthy’ learning environment at CEFORMI where boys and girls learn to share and live together.
- Most youth will come from the urban conglomerate of Kigali. CEFORMI will discourage trainees with homes in towns far away from Kigali or with homes in rural agricultural areas. In case such candidate trainees turn up and desire to train at CEFORMI, they will be advised to consider other VTC’s or other opportunities that may be more relevant to their future situation and/or are closer to their homes and/or family environment. However, CEFORMI recognizes that many trainees with no home situation, such as Child Headed Households, want to be trained and find a living environment. In such cases, CEFORMI may take in such trainees.
- It is desirable that the youth starting of as trainees are functionally literate (i.e. able to read and write well) in Kinyarwanda and are numerate (able to carry out basic mathematical computations). In case they do not have this capacity, an intensive "catch-up" class may need to be organized for such trainees so that they acquire these skills integrated in their training.