On Thursday May 30, the National Commission for Children (NCC) in partnership with UNICEF and Tulane University started training of 28 child care psychosocial workers on rapid assessment skills that will enable trainees to conduct a rapid assessment of reintegrated children in Rwanda.

Following the on-going government program of removing children from institutions/orphanages to families, rapid assessment will follow to describe the current wellbeing of children reintegrated into the community, but also identify better ways to strengthen the reintegration process by establishing services and support that will help children and families before and after reintegration.

In addition, the rapid assessment is meant to provide a snapshot of urgent child protection related needs within the immediate reintegration context, as well as act as a stepping-stone for a more comprehensive process of assessing the impacts of alternative child care.

According to NCC management, the rapid assessment is one component of a coordinated child care reform mechanism to protect the interests of children. The rapid assessment is useful in a way that it will create an evidence-base for advocacy with stakeholders; provide knowledge of where the main information gaps are.

At the end of the training, trainees will be equipped with the required skills, well versed with the issues addressed by the assessment given the fact that the trainers are qualified experts provided by Tulane University. “While significant efforts have been dedicated to ensure that the assessment tool is as comprehensive as possible, it cannot be implemented without fit assessors in terms of knowledge and skills”, said the trainer Dr Bridget Lavin. Within the seven days of training, trainees will undergo pilot testing of the assessment tools to enable the assessors work comfortably with the said tools.