Jesuit Urumuri Centre has officially begun training for the youth empowerment program’s third cohort. With Business development center (BDC Rwanda) facilitating training, JUC has taken on 37 youth to take through a 3 month training on social innovation and entrepreneurship program with the help of the program’s manual.
The program, which is a fruit of timeless commitment of Jesuit Urumuri Centre to help young adults in Rwandan society surmount the challenges of unemployment and despairing mentality, as former JUC director Fr Patrice put it, was initiated for its beneficiaries to learn innovation and entrepreneurship in order to create jobs for themselves as well as for their peers. During this training, beneficiaries will be taken through training in five modules namely; (1) Self-discovery (2) Self realization, innovation and prototyping (3) Marketing and promotion (4) Operations, financing and financial management and lastly (5) Strategic planning and sustainability.
JUC programs manager Mr Prudence Kayiranga, sj, was this week on hand to welcome beneficiaries back to Jesuit Urumuri Centre following last week’s bootcamp exercise from which a final selection of beneficiaries was made. During his remarks, Mr Kayiranga reminded beneficiaries of the investment made for the program to have been possible; “I urge you once again to appreciate the labor that went into thinking about this project and persuading partners that it would be worthwhile, for our youth. The Church loves you and the Society of Jesus has it in its mission, to accompany the youth. Do take full advantage of this opportunity. Learn as much as you can, ask all questions you might have, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity”.
Present also was Mr Anaclet Bagirishya, a BDC affiliated trainer, who also encouraged beneficiaries to realize how valuable the training is; “This program is special because we are not only teaching business but we are teaching it the Christ like way. JUC is a faith based organization, and we of course are Christians first, so we teach you about ‘Kingdom businesses’. The businesses you will found will not be any kind of business, they will serve not only you but the people around you as well, your communities”.
As a Jesuit apostolate, Jesuit Urumuri Centre is guided by the four Universal Apostolic Preferences, one of them being; accompanying the youth in the creation of a hope-filled future. JUC therefore is humbled and grateful to her partners and collaborators for enabling her to run this program for these youth, who consists of Rwandans, Burundian refugees and foreign nationals.
Henriette Mushimiyimana
JUC Communication Officer
