November 2024 Newsletter
The team in Rwanda welcomes new members!
Rwanda Action continues to deliver an array of impactful projects in Rwanda under the leadership of our Country Director, Alex. He has recently recruited new team members at the Alivera Project, the Rusizi Centre for Inclusion and in our administration team. I have just returned from a month in Rwanda where I got to see them in action, and I was uplifted by the positive energy and enthusiasm of the whole team.
An exciting new avenue for RA is the expansion of our work with children living with disability. The Alivera Centre team continue to care for 48 children in residence during term time and I met the nine deaf children, who are in their first term boarding at the Centre. It was remarkable how quickly they had settled in and the trust they have in the team who care for them. They have started learning sign language and basic maths, reading and writing.
Some of the children who cannot manage the mainstream school curriculum are in their final year in the Jo Bevan Learning Unit, where they are concentrating on life skills to help them back at home. During my visits, they were learning to prepare vegetables, clean shoes and count objects, all in the cheerful atmosphere of the Unit.
Children cleaning shoes
Our exciting new programme to train Special Needs Education Co-Ordinators (SNECOs) has now expanded across the two districts of Rusizi and Nyamasheke. I met the 18 SNECOs in Rusizi district during their first week of training with Divine, our inspirational new Teacher Trainer and we could not wish for more enthusiastic agents of change. While I was in Rwanda, we also recruited a second Teacher Trainer, Mary, to train the 15 SNECOs in Nyamasheke district.
Divine (in yellow) with some of the SNECO trainees
We should not underestimate the scale of the task SNECOs have taken on, working in all schools in their sectors on top of their full-time teaching jobs. I caught up with one of the SNECOs, Therese, back at her school, where she had created a fabulous space with teaching materials. This will facilitate her work with children and their teachers and parents, to assess needs and come up with strategies to help each child to thrive at school.
Therese at school with resources for teaching children with special educational needs
We have been collecting data to measure how many children with additional needs are in school and how many are currently unable to attend. The SNECO programme expands what we have learned at the Alivera Centre to the schools and communities where children live with their families.
Our work in the Alivera Centre, the Jo Bevan Learning Unit and the SNECO programme has attracted the interest of the Rwanda Education Board (REB) as a means to delivering the new curriculum for children with special educational needs. REB sent a team to train all teachers across Ruharambuga sector and our staff for a week at the beginning of November. We hope that, in time, we will see our pioneering work replicated in other districts.
A six year old child learning sign language at the Alivera Centre
The value of our team’s work is evident in the lives and attitudes of the young people we have worked with in the past. I was fortunate to be at our Saturday club, when Shaban popped in. Graduates of our street children programme like to visit to encourage the children to make the most of the opportunities on offer. Shaban was living on the streets in a desperate situation when we met him. The Police brought him to our centre where he lived for many months, until we could reunite him with his family. After going home, Shaban maintained good attendance at school and at our Saturday club until last year when we supported him to go to a vocational school to learn welding. Shaban came back to let us know that life is good, he is finding work and wanted to thank our team and UK supporters.
In Education, the 2024 Learning Initiative Impact Report has analysed results from schools in our programme, showing great progress towards our goals of raising teaching standards to improve students’ results and reduce dropout in primary school children. These results from the third year of a four-year project, will help to convince REB that careful assessment of students and teaching at the right level can help to improve attendance and results for students at all levels.
Gashonga tree nursery
At our farm, a female kid was born at the beginning of November and another doe is due to give birth soon. These kids are 50% dairy goats and perhaps more exciting, we are waiting for two of their older sisters to give birth to the first of the 75% kids we need in order to start producing goat milk. The oyster mushrooms have been less productive than expected due to an unusually warm and very dry rainy season. Hopefully the rains will eventually arrive.
Mother and kid
Exciting Opportunity to Join the Rwanda Action Team
The Trustees of Rwanda Action are looking for a motivated, part-time fundraiser to work alongside David Chaplin to support and build upon his ongoing work. While this could be a salaried position, we’re primarily seeking someone who is passionate about our mission and vision, and who is excited to engage directly with our work in Rwanda.
The role involves maintaining and growing our family of supporters, and we hope to find someone who is willing to visit Rwanda, see our work first hand and become an integral part of our fundraising efforts.
If this sounds like a role you or someone you know would be interested in, please contact David Chaplin at david.chaplin@rwandaaction.org.
We cannot thank you enough for your support that enables this inspiring work and of course thanks to Alex and his team for making the magic happen! If you would like to support our work, while spreading a little cheer this Christmas, please have a look at our online shop for handmade cards and craft, made at the Alivera Village, where we train young people living with disability for employment and independent living.
Janyis Watson, CEO