At-Risk Youth Education Sponsorship Program

REPORT ABOUT THE IMPACT WE ARE MAKING TOGETHER

Dear friends,

I hope you are doing well and staying in good health with your loved ones wherever you might be across our global village! 

Les Enfants de Dieu (EDD)   in partnership with GlobalGiving are thrilled to keep you posted about the impact in our program of education sponsorship for former street children. It is a progressive report that regards our project of Education Sponsoring program for 200 students who are studying in different education levels, namely primary, secondary school, and vocational training,(Primary: 43 students, Secondary: 153students and Vocational Training: 4 students). With your support we have been able to pay the school fees and scholastic materials for all our beneficiaries and they were able to go to their respective schools with confidence and courage to pursue their studies enthusiastically.

Now, on 1^st April 2022 all the students have come back in two weeks holidays which is going to end soon on 18^th April 2022, and we are very thankful for your generosity and the life transformation we are making together through this education project, and the impact you are making is really not only for these children and youth but also for their families where they live and their community at large, as we are aspire them to become the agent of changes in their respective societies.

Below is an example of how a life can be transformed from vulnerable to valuable one.

Emmanuel one of EDD alumni in his own words share his story how he moved from hopeless background to becoming one of confident and able professional teacher in Rwanda.

My life was difficult because I lost my mother in the 1994 genocide when I was only 3 years old. At that time my family was so poor, they were unable to feed us and to pay for our education. I had five brothers and our father decided to remarry another woman in order to help him to raise us. Living with my stepmother brought me a lot of challenges. When I was 7 years old my father did not allow me go to school to start primary school. Two years later. I decided to go to the street to beg the passengers of buses where I started to take drugs such as weed, petroleum, strong beer, cigarettes etc. On the streets, I was sleeping in the cold, under the bridges, eating leftovers from dustbins. I was misbehaved since I was not educated. I used to rob people, steal women’s bags and pickpocket men’s wallets.

At the end, with the help of Les Enfants de Dieu, I was saved! The Manager of the Centre at that time found me on street and invited me to come and start a better life.  When I arrived at EDD I got access to education, food, shelter, health care etc. It was hard to believe it at the beginning because my life had completely changed. I finished primary school and graduated at the end of 2008, and I was reintegrated back into my family at the beginning of 2009 but the centre kept paying for my studies. I continued my secondary school then in 2011 after passing O level National Exam, I succeeded with the good score and got oriented by Ministry of Education in Teachers Training College (TTC). There, I studied harder and harder in order to succeed as usual. In 2014, I got a degree that allowed me to be a qualified Teacher of Primary School. Now I am Teacher in MUGANZA Primary school also in Kigali where I am teaching English and SET in Primary 4, 5, and 6. I am thankful Les Enfants de Dieu, the staff and board members for changing my life. May God bless EDD and protect themforever!

Conclusively, thank you for being part of this transformative journey, your support is invaluable and the impact it brings to former street lives is really worth more than what we can say. Thank you!

Links:

• Some of the sponsored students