In Brigitte Nshimyimana’s quiet moments and in her dreams it’s there. The war in Rwanda. The genocide. Children crying for their mothers they’ll never see again. The regret that she could not do anything for them because, like everyone else at the time, she had to run for her life.
She escaped and ended up as a refugee in Namibia. However, she could never escape the images of those children left unattended. But now, years later, she is at last able to respond to those cries and to the cries of the children in need which ring out to her every day.
She explains: “Before the war I was a teacher for Grades 5 and 7. I was dealing with children daily. In Namibia I got the opportunity to continue my education and I enrolled for a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Namibia. I managed to get a job in the Namibian Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare in 2004, dealing mostly with orphans and children left vulnerable due to HIV/Aids.
“Now at least I can help children such as those who were left behind in the Rwandan war and needed the care and protection that I couldn’t give them. Now, in my own way, I am able to make a difference by providing alternative care and other related support to children in need.”
Today Nshimyimana, who also obtained a PGDip (Monitoring and Evaluation Methods) and MPhil (Monitoring and Evaluation Methods) from SU, is the Control Social Worker within the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare. She is responsible for supervising entry-level social workers, senior social workers, and chief social workers. She introduced the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system that became part of the programmes in the directorate and the entire ministry.
M&E is a strategic aspect for evidence-based policymaking, planning, budgeting, management, and improvement, as well as evidence-based reporting and accountability within various programmes in the developmental arena, including childcare and protection programming. She also championed the operationalisation of shelters for victims of gender-based violence, violence against children and trafficking.
According to the Violence Against Children Survey conducted in Namibia in 2019, 32.7% of girls and 30.9% of boys experienced physical violence at the hands of parents and caregivers prior to age 18. It also showed that 11.8% of girls and 7.3% of boys experienced sexual violence, and that 39.3% of boys and 30.0% of girls experienced emotional violence inflicted by peers.
But Nshimyimana says the Namibian government has developed a strong legislative and policy framework for the care and protection of children.
“Under the leadership and guidance of the Directorate of Child Welfare’s core team of which I form a part, a national plan of action for preventing and responding to violence against children was developed. Currently, we are mobilising resources to ensure that the planned strategies are implemented, monitored, and evaluated.”
She has since also re-joined SU to bolster her fight to assist children in need.
“I am currently in my third year as a PhD student in Public Management and Development at the School of Public Leadership. The dissertation I am working on is entitled, ‘Developing Results-based Monitoring and Evaluation System of the Child Support Grants Programme in Namibia’. My PhD work will benefit children in Namibia but also help me keep the promise I made to those children in Rwanda all those years ago.”
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