Helping Rwandan Children out of Poverty

Mike and Dennis have been back in Bugarama for the first time since the pandemic reviewing our projects and planning our interventions for the next three years.

We had a tremendous reception at each of the supported schools, none more so than at GS St Paul Muko where a brass band and choir awaited to escort us around the town, followed by music, dancing groups and even contortionists, displaying the talents of the students.

This school has been transformed since our first visit 12 years ago and now leads the district in academic achievement, sports and innovation. Led by its dynamic headteacher, Father Emmanuel, the school has enthusiatically embraced the government call to schools to supplement the school lunches programme by farming to produce their own vegetables. All children are now fed at lunchtime each day and this reinforces school attendance and achievement.

Another initiative of the headteacher has been the programme to search out and find the many street children in Bugarama who have dropped out of school due to family conflicts, bereavement or sheer poverty. 150 children now attend each day, made to feel welcomed by fellow pupils as well as staff and receive two meals a day including weekends. Two teachers are permanently assigned to look after them and provide counselling. It comes as a significant cost to the school and is something we hope to include in our strategy to support schools over the next three years.

We have had discussions with headteachers and community leaders at nine local schools, including the two brand new schools which have been built recently by the Rwandan government and World Bank to address overcrowding. Several themes have emerged:

• One school, Bugarama Cite, the oldest school in the town, desperately needs new classrooms to replace very poor teaching and learning conditions.
• Vocational training is a high priority where many children leave school to be unemployed.
• Security fencing makes a big difference to protect schools from damage by outsiders and animals and also enables schools to keep students from absconding.
• Government policy insists that all schools must provide girls' hygiene rooms to support female school attendance but most facilities are inadequate.
• Schools have also seen the impact of the basketball/ volleyball courts we have been able to install in two schools.

The list of priorities is extensive and somehow we must whittle it down to a manageable programme which we can present to Jersey Overseas Aid, our principal funder. Our recent impact assessment study has demonstrated the effectiveness of our previous projects and we are confident of their ongoing support. We shall also try to diversify our sources of funding so that we can more adequately address the many issues we have heard about in the past few weeks which have shown us clearly the aspirations and drive of local people to reach ever higher standards in schools.