TUBITEHO, No34/RGB/NGO/08.11/11, operates in Rwanda at Gahanga/ Kicukiro District as a non-governmental organization focusing on advocacy and special education for people with mental and intellectual disabilities. Together with parents , friends of  Tubiteho’s beneficiaries and partners we fight against stigma and discrimination towards people with mental and intellectual disabilities. Our centre “Le Centre de jour TUBITEHO” welcomes all persons with mental and intellectual disabilities where they can receive an education tailored to their needs and potential to grow. At our centre, they are free from any form of social exclusion, enjoying their fundamental rights which facilitate greater integration into society.

TUBITEHO’s vision is to advocate for persons with mental and intellectual disabilities through improving their overall well-being, enhancing their self-sustainability and ensuring greater participation in socioeconomic transformation within society.

We are excited to have you as our visitor and encourage you to become our partner in this great journey of advocacy.

Ensuring the holistic well-being of people with mental and intellectual disabilities and facilitating their integration into society. 

To improve the self-reliance and socio-economic participation of all people with mental and intellectual disability into the society.

• Identification and admission of individuals with mental and intellectual disability at our Day Care Centre, protecting all who come to the centre from discrimination, stigmatization, dehumanization and social exclusion.
• Providing mentally disabled persons with special measures of protection while strengthening their physical and moral conditions.  All of our guests will have the safe and welcoming space necessary to ensure their dignity, promote their self-reliance and elevate their active participation in the community.
• Improving access to special education, health and counseling services, and employment which will promote the mental and physical well-being of persons with disabilities and enable their socio-economic transformation.

Many people with disabilities do not have equal access to health care, education, nor employment opportunities.  They do not receive the disability-related services that they require, and experience exclusion from everyday activities throughout their lives. In Rwanda, care and treatment for persons with disabilities started way back in the late 1950s. Through the decades, the Rwandan Government has made remarkable progress in aligning national laws to reflect international principles and theoretical frameworks recognizing that disability is a cross-cutting issue that should be mainstreamed across all relevant sectors and ministries. In this vein, TUBITEHO is a non-governmental organization aiming at affirming that disability needs not be an obstacle to success. Our NGO was legally recognized by Rwanda Governance Board on 15th October, 2013 under Rwanda granted legal personality no 34/08.11. After several years of challenges that limited our impact and growth, our initiatives are now grounded and stable.

TUBITEHO, means “Let’s care for them”.  We focus on day care services offered to persons with mental and intellectual disabilities to increase their limited potentialities. Our strategic development plan is grounded in special educative, health and vocational services which are offered daily at our Headquarters in Kigali City, Kicukiro District, Gahanga Sector. Our buildings have been financially supported by the Rwandan Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), STIFTUNG CORYMBO, parents and various friends such as Association des Amis Du Dr Naasson MUNYANDAMUTSA.

Our values are based upon the dignity for all human beings regardless of their limitations.  We seek out our values in solidarity with all those who believe in equality and the rights of all human beings.

Special education holds importance for students who have specific learning needs and whose needs would not be met in a regular classroom. Within a structured setting, the center’s teachers know various teaching techniques and methodologies used in helping students with different learning styles, needs. They can adapt and adopt course content and goals to them according to each individual age, level, and nature of the disability. Without this, a classified student would have tremendous struggle to keep up with other non-classified students in a regular setting. Schools, parents, and caregivers have an important role in helping children with disabilities and special abilities. Special needs education is our priority and needs immediate, consistent focus. In special needs education, the fact of individualizing activities is a must. Every learner is unique in their abilities and learns at their own pace. By individualization, the implication of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is a guide.

At a productive age, persons with Intellectual disability (ID) are socially excluded due to the lack of employment. They face many barriers such as difficulties in learning, stigmas, lack of access to social environment predisposing them perpetually to dependence on their families without any possibility of social and financial development. The insertion of persons with ID into work allows them to develop their attitudes, skills, and other adult gestures. Then, they can assimilate some rules of coexistence and develop autonomy skills.

At TUBITEHO, we are focusing and emphasizing vocational training for our beneficiaries preparing to finish their special education, as a determining factor leading them to the labor market, preventing isolation and confinement at home; by providing adaptive behaviors toward their achievement of profession inclusion and employment. This vocational training is also enhancing their self-determination skills, upgrading their decision-making, and minimizing gradually the need for continuous assistance and support. We offer them sewing machines, handcraft (bids, necklaces, earrings, ornament articles, etc).

Tubiteho equips students with skills that can range from basic mobility, positioning, and physical activation through an understanding of spatial awareness, fine & gross motor skills to specific skills required for a purpose. Physical Education contributes to developing the body’s strength and physical well-being. Physical activities provide to learners with opportunities through which they can help to control obesity, improve fine and gross motor co-ordination, concentration, listening skills, self-esteem, self-confidence and ability to co-operate and communicate with others.

While respect for diversity and the rights of minority groups are being taken very seriously in many parts of the world, despite the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), children and young people with intellectual disabilities are mostly still an invisible minority. In many countries, the principle of inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities is accepted. However, among the general population and service providers, it is often viewed as impractical and unachievable; and there is often still concern that inclusion may have negative consequences for those without disabilities, particularly in school and work settings. In Rwanda, like in other countries, people with intellectual disabilities are accorded low visibility, for example, in government action, in line with the duties placed on them under the United Nations CRPD. Tubiteho undertakes efforts to raise awareness or combat-related prejudices. Intellectual disability mostly appears to be subsumed within general disability awareness-raising or overlooked entirely. Tubiteho organizes several awareness-raising initiatives aiming at educating Rwandan society that there is a positive impact of inclusion for the general population but not just for people with intellectual disabilities.

We combat all desire of segregating people with intellectual disabilities from society due to deep-rooted prejudices or stigmatizing beliefs about the causes of intellectual disability. Furthermore, we fight against a range of attitudes reflected in the language commonly used among the general population and media when referring to intellectual disability, namely the use of derogatory terms such as ‘mental retardation’, ‘retard’, ‘Downey’, ‘moron’, ‘Mongol’ and ‘fool’, that indicate fundamental disrespect and a failure to recognize the equal rights of people with intellectual disabilities.