Japan Woman Supports Single Moms in Rwanda; Provides Japanese Youth with Internship Opportunities in Africa

The Japan News
Mio Yamada chats with children during lunch time at the kindergarten operated by Kiseki in Kigali on Dec. 23.

KIGALI — Several women in brightly colored aprons busily prepare lunch in the kitchen, while two Japanese interns help some older children with their basic English studies.

Cheerful voices echo in the kindergarten classrooms in Rwanda’s capital of Kigali, a sign of the positive effects of a program designed to help those left behind in a country making remarkable progress from a tragic past.

“We want to make sure children eat well here, because some of them may not have enough food at home,” said Japanese social entrepreneur Mio Yamada as she walks into the kitchen to check the day’s lunch menu in late December.

The Japan News
Mio Yamada chats with children during lunch time at the kindergarten.

Yamada, 42, is the founder of Kiseki, a social enterprise that runs projects in Rwanda to empower single mothers and their children in the landlocked African country’s capital. The organization also hosts Japanese youth as interns, providing them with opportunities to gain valuable community work experience in Africa.

Many of the children in the program come from informal settlements near Kiseki’s complex set up on the edge of an affluent neighborhood in Kigali.

The Japan News
Kiseki staff prepares lunch in the community kitchen run by Kiseki in Kigali.

The program uses a public kindergarten that had been abandoned for years due to lack of funding and staff, which Kiseki refurbished and has been operating on behalf of the local community since 2018. More than 100 children are now registered with the kindergarten, and Kiseki covers the fees for about half of them based on their economic situation.

Since the 1994 genocide that left over 800,000 dead, Rwanda has transformed itself into one of the most secure countries in Africa with a rapidly growing economy. However, nearly half of its population of about 14 million still live in poverty.

Kiseki, meaning “miracle” in Japanese, employs a staff of 26, most of them single mothers. They work at the Kiseki complex that includes the kindergarten, a childcare center, a community kitchen and vocational training center. At the latter, training in tailoring is provided to 14 other single mothers, who then make traditional African batik products that are sold through Kiseki.

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The instructor of Kiseki’s vocational training center shows dresses made there.

“There are many mothers who dropped out of elementary school or junior high school and had babies when they were teenagers. It means a lot to them to acquire skills to support their families,” said Yamada, dressed in a bright blue dress made at the training center.

The daycare center looks after about 30 babies and toddlers free of charge to enable Kiseki staff and other single mothers to work. The community kitchen provides free lunches to all children attending the kindergarten and daycare center, as well as other youngsters in need in the community.

An adventurer

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Mio Yamada stands by the Kiseki sign in Kigali.

“To put it simply, I’m an adventurer,” Yamada said. “I enjoy trying out different ideas to bring about positive changes.”

Yamada has been interested in international cooperation since she was young. She studied Swahili, the main language of East Africa, at Osaka University of Foreign Studies (now Osaka University’s School of Foreign Studies), and while at university, completed a 5,000-kilometer solo bicycle trip from Nairobi to South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. Upon graduating, she spent several years working for a publisher in Tokyo before setting off to travel around the world by bicycle.

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Mio Yamada talks to a child on the kindergarten’s playground in Kigali.

When Yamada first arrived, she opened a high-end Japanese restaurant, employing experienced staff who had worked for other fancy restaurants in Kigali. However, the workers proved troublesome, stealing equipment and sometimes not showing up for work without notice.

“I wish everyone was like you,” a distressed Yamada said to one loyal worker, who was a single mother.

The next day, the woman brought along about 50 single mothers who were looking for employment. Being a mother herself, Yamada sympathized when they spoke of the hardships of raising children on their own, while having little chance for formal employment due to a lack of education and work experience.

Yamada employed some of them at the restaurant in a staffing overhaul, but her attention gradually shifted to social entrepreneurship. The COVID-19 pandemic proved the final straw and Yamada closed the restaurant in 2020.

Mutual support

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Children and Kiseki staff members celebrate a Japanese intern’s birthday in Kigali in late December.

Kiseki’s projects are mainly funded by fees paid by interns from Japan. Participants in the program pay $500 per week, which also covers room and board at Yamada’s home-turned-guesthouse. The program started in 2018, and it now receives roughly 150 participants every year.

“I want them to have a truly moving experience through deep interaction with the local people,” Yamada said.

The interns can stay from one week to six months, and choose their workplace from among the kindergarten, daycare center or vocational training center, where they are encouraged to develop independent projects. For additional fees, they can also participate in tours to rural villages or overnight stays in an informal settlement.

“I’m gaining a whole new perspective,” said Saaya Yano, a junior at Tokyo’s Ochanomizu University, who was spending a week with Kiseki in late December.

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A Japanese intern talks with a Kiseki staff member in the kindergarten in Kigali.

Majoring in developmental studies, she visited the home of a Kiseki staff member in an underdeveloped village as part of her internship. “Previously, I was only looking at the big picture of Rwanda’s impressive economic development, but here, I can directly interact with mothers and children and hear the voices of people who are left behind,” she said.

Hana Ito, a junior at Sophia University in Tokyo, said the program has provided a fresh outlook on international cooperation. “I’ve come to realize the importance of working with local people, rather than providing one-sided support,” Ito said.

Many interns are university students specializing in such fields as developmental studies and international cooperation. But participants also range from elementary and junior high school students on study tours, to adults from various professions such as teachers and doctors.

Kiseki’s staff members are happy to host the interns.

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Children and staff dance on the playground of the kindergarten operated by Kiseki in Kigali.

“I love my job,” said Noella Uzayisenga, a 25-year-old mother of three who oversees the interns. She said she enjoys communicating with Japanese youth and feels proud to introduce her country and culture to them.

Uzayisenga recalled comforting an intern who said her life was unsatisfying despite having enough money. “We tried to explain how we live in Rwanda,” Uzayisenga said. “We told her, ‘If you keep smiling, you forget many things that make you unhappy.’”

“Rwandan mothers are very humane and engaging,” Yamada said. Through her projects, she aims to provide a platform for the interns and Rwandan mothers to “support each other and learn from each other.”

This year, Yamada aims to broaden the support base for her projects by going back and forth between Japan and Rwanda. “It’ll be great if some non-Japanese people would also join our internship program,” she said.