Build a preschool for 100 Batwa Children.

 Dear Pygmy Survival Alliance supporters, 

Building Meeting Rooms. Great progress has been made. The windows and doors are installed. The water pipes have been moved to outside where the excess water runs away from the building protecting the foundation. The classroom is full of students five days a week. The building still needs painting on the inside, and furnishings added. The room where the water pipes were removed, the villagers are uising the room by renting it for a variety of meetings. This room needs adult chairs and electricity added so meetings can be held later in the evenings. A complete success. 

The Cultural Center /Expanded Preschool is going through the nex phase of design. We are looking into the Zoneing rules and government Cultural rules and the preschool requirements. So much to decide before breaking ground. 

The kithen has been bilt and the feeding program is being expanded again. Started out a program for the children attending the preschool program. Now it is the children 3 months old through finishing preschool. Plus all children who attend Saturday sports and all the children who show up are fed a cup of porridge and a hard boild egg. Twice a week hard boiled eggs are added to the nuitrician and a cup of milk, on some days. The women who are cooking the porridge have added taking cups of porridge to villagers who are too ill to leave the house. Expanding taking care of each other, when needed. 

Vocational Education is expanding. The students who complete their training are taking on teaching the young people who are wanting to learn sewing and beautician work. Keeping the payments in the community. The program is only a few months along. It seems to be working out well.

Soccer is still very popular with the community, and the children are still playing as often as possible. Saturdays are very competitive with the adults and children.  Neighboring soccer teams come to join the activity and the compitition is high. Uniforms, balls and porridge remain exciting and popular. 

 The Cultural Center /Expanded Preschool is going through the nex phase of design. We are looking into the Zoneing rules and government Cultural rules and the preschool requirements. So much to decide before breaking ground. 

Colaborating with the community on projects is quite a shift for all of us, the resut is the community of Pygmies are taking on more and more of the general responsibilitys. They have elected members of the commnity to be the leaders. They are stepipng up and fullfilling the duties of people incharge. 

LINKS

The high end venue where the Amakondera troop wants to preform  https://youtu.be/mEkVBR4fmRc

Cyaruzinge people showing  skills to visitors 1 of 2 https://youtu.be/KgNXeCN-OCE

Visitors to Cyaruzinge village shop and watch skills demonstrations https://youtu.be/1gSXLsEemno

Since 2008 Pygmy Survival Alliance has operated the Community of Potters Health and Development Project (COPHAD), formerly known as the marginalized indigenous hunter-gatherers, the Batwa Pygmies. The purpose is to further the development of the unique community. Rwanda 2000 has made significant progress, however, the Batwa are still the most vulnerable element of Rwandan society. 

The science of children’s growth and development has indicated that the early years of development are the most crucial in shaping the future. Children need both quality and quantity of nutrition, health care, and a stimulating environment. This has changed, the Vocational education program has helped bring the forgotten people out of poverty. Building the preschool, (Irerero), has prepared the children to attend public school, where the children have proven to the community and the government that the Batwa are valuable assets to the country. Building the Kitchen and feeding all the children porridge and an egg has increased the health of the community. Football, (soccer) is an important part of the Rwandan culture, and their abilities in playing well have broadened the respect throughout the region that the Batwa are capable and strong contributing to the well-being of the children in Cyaruzinge and the community surrounding them. The newly completed Multipurpose building allows for another preschool classroom, Adults to attend reading, writing, and speaking in Kinyarwanda, and English classes. Practice space for musicians, dancers, students, and weavers a place to attend regular meetings.   

COPHAD is an effective model program that has achieved multi-faceted improvements in community health and development. It follows a slow and purposefully inclusive strategy of community engagement to restore health, culture, and society by targeting food security, water and sanitation, medical care, education, and jobs. It is validated by significant evidence-based outcomes in healthcare, nutrition, economic growth, and women’s rights, and is the only evidence-based intervention we have found that is proven to prevent the physical and social extinction of a community. 

COPHAD costs about $50 US dollars a year per family. It has saved one baby every 2-3 years per family since 2008. Resulting in raising the status of women in Rwandan society. 

One hundred percent of donations to PSA go to projects. All administrative expenses are covered by private donors. 2016 village women asked HDI, the Rwanda government, and PSA, USA to start a children’s preschool. Opening in a one-room dirt-floor hut, the Irerero Nursery School has been an enormous success. One hundred and fifty children now receive a jump start on life. They are fed and educated. With the children in safe hands, many of the mothers are now able to seek daily employment. Armed with their Irerero experience, the children have a head start and easily transition to elementary school. 

• Five Photos for Five Projects (PDF)