Helping Rwandan Children out of Poverty

Jersey Overseas Aid has again generously approved funding for two projects this year. The first is at Nyakagoma where we will be able to complete a block of six new classrooms by building a second floor on top of those constructed last year. The school will now be able to take secondary pupils in years S1-S3. This project is fully funded, and we are able to start this straightaway so that the new classrooms will be ready for the new school year in September.

Our second project will be back at Muko School where we will be renovating a block of six degraded classrooms. This work will include internal plastering of walls, new floors and external pavement as well as the installation of plastic ceilings. These have proven to have significant benefits for teaching and learning conditions through the reduction of noise from adjoining classrooms and rain on tin roofs.

Our renovation project will start towards the end of the year as we are committed to raising 50% of the costs, amounting to a total of £22,000. We are already halfway towards this target but still have work to do over the next few months.

Our latest fundraising initiative for this year is the opening of a charity shop in St Helier. Dennis and his friends have put in a huge amount of work transforming the shop and making it attractive. It has been open now for nearly a month so we will begin to get an idea about turnover.

Dennis and Mike are planning a visit to Bugarama in July this year, our first opportunity since lockdown. Sadly, we took the decision not to take any other volunteers this year as testing restrictions are still in force. We will be looking at developments at the schools over the past two years and planning what we can contribute next.