Tabara Africa began as a concept in June 2008. It was co-founded by two friends: Jasmine Kayitesi, a single mother, and Marion Grace Woolley, an international volunteer.

It was a response to the situation Jasmine found herself in when her husband left her to raise two children on her own. Very quickly it became apparent that Jasmine's situation was not unique and that many mothers and fathers in Rwanda were facing the same problems.

In September 2008, Tabara held its first public meeting with over 60 single parents attending. The workshop was designed to find out what the priorities of single parents were and to try to help participants to find other single parents in their local area with a view to setting up support groups.

The result of the meeting was that single parents identified the following key issues that they wanted Tabara to address:

• Social stigma
• Isolation
• Unemployment
• Threats (physical and verbal) from former partners
• Fear of having to give up their children to other family members
• Inability to pay for their child's education
• Poor health due to low-income

These went on to form Tabara's key objectives.

Another outcome of the meeting was the creation of our first Single Parent Networks (SPNs). These are groups of single parents living in the same neighbourhood who are available to offer moral support, share information and get involved in Tabara's campaigns. These SPNs are based in: Kacyiru, Remera, Kicukiro, Kimihurura and Kimironko (see 'Vision & Location' for map).

On 19th March 2009, Tabara became a fully registered local Rwandan NGO, provisional certificate number: 017/09

Since then we have received donations from the UK, Ireland and Canada. You can see a list of all our individual and group donors in the Sponsorship section of the website. 

We are still a very young organisation with limited funds, but we hope that as we grow we can expand our activities across Rwanda, building a national network of single parents.

We see a world in which ‘single parent family’ does not necessarily mean ‘low income family’, where the children of single parents have the same access to education and healthcare as children with two parents, and where single mums and dads can hold their heads high, free from stigma, and be proud of what they have achieved.

Where we work:

At present our activities are concentrated on Kigali but as the organisation grows we hope to spread our activities country-wide, reaching single parents in both rural and urban areas.

At present our Single Parent Networks (SPNs) are situated in:

• Kacyiru - 1
• Remera - 2
• Kicukiro- 3
• Kimihurura- 4
• Kimoronko- 5

Our office is situated in Kacyiru near the American Embassy and we run a shop near Nyabugogo Bus Station:

We welcome donations of second hand clothing, bags and shoes. Sales from these go towards a project fund for our members.

The key objectives of the organisation are to set up single parent networks in order to reach potential members and provide them with strong community support. The areas we specifically focus on are:

Access to Health Care

Single parent families are often very low income families. Health care is a major focus for Tabara; with everyone relying on one parent to provide an income it is important to keep that parent in good health. At the same time it is important that children of single parent families have access to medical care and don't suffer a higher risk of mortality due to lack of parental income.

Access to Employment & Education

The majority of our members have little or no formal education. Combined with the responsibility of being a single head of household this means that full-time employment can compromise child welfare. Our aim is to help support single parent work co-operatives where single parents can work to flexible hours whilst learning new skills. This gets people into employment whilst still providing time to care for children and dependants. It also creates supportive working environments where single parents can talk, share information and socialise.

Advocacy & Lobbying

With the developments in Social Welfare happening in Rwanda, we want to make sure that single parent families have a voice in future policies and decisions which affect them.

We aim to provide a safe, non-judgemental and supportive atmosphere in which single parents and their children can form friendships, share information and learn vocational skills. Through helping single parents with health care, employment and education the family unit as a whole will benefit.

Tabara is currently 100% run by volunteers, we have no paid staff. Our Committee are made up of single parents and children of single parents who donate their time to helping others.

Some of the key members include:

President: Jasmine Kayitesi
Founder of Tabara Africa, single mother and extremely hard worker.

Secretary: Marie Therese Mukarurema
Cornerstone of the organisation, administrator and founding Committee member.

Treasurer: Douglas Mugerwa
New to the role; highly involved in financial management, fundraising and publicity.

Capacity Building: Marion Grace Woolley
Co-Founder and former Treasurer, Marion now helps with training and awareness raising.

We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to professional volunteers who have donated their time and expertise to Tabara.

These include Canadian volunteers Cassandra and Kate who were in Kigali when Tabara was very first beginning and helped with our first public meeting.

Also to Jackie Massey from Accounting for International Development who will be joining us in January 2010 for one month to help build our financial management capacity.

Tabara welcomes all single parents, be they widowed, divorced, separated or never married. What matters is not what has happened, but what will happen next for both parent and child.

At present Tabara represents more than 80 single parents, 3% of whom are single fathers. Together they are raising over 150 children.

Our membership is based in Kigali (see 'Vision & Location' for more details) but we hope to expand throughout Rwanda as our organisation strengthens.

Many of our members have little or no formal education, no financial support and often no way to pay education fees or medical bills.