Rwanda: Deaf And Mute Children Are Not Stupid Kids

Children at Kigali deaf-school

Rwanda: Deaf And Mute Children Are Not Stupid Kids

When Sister Angela Casciaro visited Rwanda in 1987, she paid special attention to the situation of the deaf and speech impaired. She found it was not good. Back in Italy, she started working on a program to set up a school for the deaf-mute in the country. This became reality, when the Institute F. Smaldone opened its doors in Nyamirambo in 1992.

Neither the special interest of Sister Casciaro, nor the name of the school, were a coincidence. Casciaro was a member of the order of the Salesian Sisters of the Sacred Hearts, which was created by Saint Filippo Smaldone in 1885 in Italy exactly to help him in his pioneering work with the deaf-mute.


During his life from 1848 to 1923, Smaldone set up schools for the deaf and dumb in Naples, Lecce, Rome and Bari, all in Italy. He later extended his work to blind children, orphans and other disadvantaged children.

The school bearing his name in Kigali, which is a fitting homage to his life's work, started out with 50 children, both in kindergarten and primary. Today, it accommodates 150 pupils, both day-school and boarders. Most of the latter come from distant regions like Kibuye, Ruhengeri, Gisenyi or Rwamagana.