Rwanda Income-Generating Project 2011
Issue: In post-Genocide Rwanda, many child-led households were placed in the neighborhood of Kininya, Kigali without access to jobs, education, or adequate financial capital. With these deprivations in access, the people of Kininya are often unable to mobilize the resources necessary to start small businesses and secure livelihoods for their families.
Solution: In 2011, 7 FSU volunteers partnered with the co-op, Cooperative of Orphans and Families Intwari (COFI), made up of the orphans in Kininya. Volunteers assisted in the development of an income-generating project, Kigali Express Cleaning Services (KECS) by:
-Providing vocational (cleaning) and business management training for the initial 28 members of KECS
-Ensuring cleaning subcontracting jobs in Kigali for the new company
-Ensuring the establishment of KECS as an official business recognized by the Rwandan Development Board with an office, laptop, Internet access, cell phones, uniforms
-Purchasing the necessary start-up cleaning machines and general supplies
-Teaching English in the community to empower workers to expand their business
Rwanda Education Project
Issue: In the wake of the atrocities of the 1994 Genocide, many orphaned children became homeless. These street children, lack the basic necessities for survival, let alone access to community resources such as education.
Solution: GPE partnered in 2008 with Umuryango, a boy’s home in rural Byimana, Rwanda. FSU volunteers:
-Fundraised $20,000 to construct an IT center for the boys
-Provided school supplies and began teaching in the local Bukomero Primary school that the boys attend
It became apparent that in the increasingly Anglophonic East-African job market, resources for English acquisition were a necessity for education advancement form the primary to university level.
Solution: Volunteers returned in both 2009 and 2010 to Byimana and the nearby city of Gitarama. They implemented:
-The William A. Kerr English Language Center at Universite Catholique de Kabgayi, establishing a model for Language Center’s in Rwanda
-An English language library at Bukomero Primary School
-IT centers at both the university and primary school to accelerate English language acquisition and skill development in the job market
-English Clubs and training for university students and teachers to be more equipped to teach English themselves
