Kigali Yunus Emre Institute gathered students and other people to organize the program of ways to protect environment through craft activities in which they name “Yunus Emre Institute Craft Days.”

Talking to Mr. Taka Hubert Munguankwako a student and trainer at Yunus Emre Institute Kigali, he mentioned that raising awareness among youth about the protection of the environment through reuse and recycling of waste and used materials would contribute a lot in saving the planet. He said that the craft that they are doing is transforming the waste into something useful

Mr. Enes Karacoban the Instructor and Manager at Yunus Emre Institute Kigali said that the idea of this program come from student when they were discussing in Turkish Language during classes and he mentioned that the institute was happy about the initiative of student in protecting environment, this program focuses especially to make awareness about the wealth existing in used materials such us (paper, newspaper, plastic). Through this program, learners and the surrounding community will be trained on how to transform used materials into new products to give them a second life. This will also raise awareness about the potential within a new mind-set or target is to promote the protection of environment and income production This will support the general philosophy applied in improved waste management (refuse, reduce, reuse and recycling) practice. The material that are being produced are (flags, basket, and decoration products) students intend to have 8 session which may be added in almost 3 months.

FEEDBACK FROM TRAINEE, EXPECTATION FOR FUTURE

 Youth who are enrolled in this program have been facing a big change in their mindset, imagine people who were wondering how used materials and waste can be used to make crafts have started to bring those raw materials themselves to the center and suggest different approaches to transform them into useful products. We hope those will be the ambassadors of environment protection in their different communities and will support the spread of the message that if waste and use materials are taken in a different angle they can be shifted from being a problem to a source of wealth

Yunus Emre Institute is a worldwide non-profit organization created by the Turkish government in 2007. Named after the famous 14th-century poet Yunus Emre, it aims to promote the Turkish language and the culture around the world. It is now operating in Rwanda since May 2022 in the University of Rwanda headquarters