Build a preschool for 100 Batwa Children.

May this report find you healthy. COVID has all of us worried about ourselves, our family, our friends, and the whole world's safety. 

With your generosity, we were able to bring food to the Cyaruzinge Village during the January and February lockdown of Kigali. The Village never has an abundance of food, but during this past year, it has been even more difficult. Thank you for your support. The community has sent a Thank You. In the video link below shows Claude bringing the food, and at the end of the video is a voice loud and clear singing out in English, Thank You, Thank You. I cannot say it better. 

Our long-term project of building an Early Childhood Education Center also has made progress. We were able to purchase added land adjacent to the lot PSA purchased in 2019. We are moving forward.

Primary schools restarted on February 21. Claude helped the parents of Cyaruzinge enroll their children.

Thank You,

PSA team, the Cyaruzinge Village and Masoro Village

Links:

• Claude delivering food during Kigali lockdown

• Newsletter March 2021 (PDF)
  

 Dear Donors,

Thank You to all of you individuals who have chosen to support PSA. Your dedication to the People Left Behind in History has allowed them to achieve their desire to move forward during this challenging 2020 year.

PSA has one employee, Claude, our field Manager. With the help of many volunteers and donors, the pygmies in Cyaruzinge village

• Fixed their storm-damaged homes
• Learned brick making and built walls
• Built Kitchens
• Sold thousands of bricks
• Organized the making and selling of Brochette Sticks
• Restored Water supply building and managed sale of city water
• Started savings society
• Raised and harvested crops 
• Received Agricultural Training on Fertilization
• Initiated Substance Abuse prevention for their youth
• Six youth started Vocational Training
• Scouts engaged
• Family planning taught
• Medical cards 
• A neighbor offered to sell the Pygmies his Land; we are buying it!
• Wheelchair purchased
• Hip Hip Hooray Electricity on the way
• Soccer Balls have been given to the community as Christmas Presents 
• Transportation and communication upgrades have been made
• Food relief delivered - COVID-19
• Amakondera Center Drawings and Construction Plans initiated

Thank you for being part of the team that is helping the Batwa help themselves. 

In Solidarity, 

Perrilee Pizzini

Links:

• Boys walking on hands

Lots of exciting things are happening to make the new preschool a reality!

The land for the new building has been cultivated with beans and corn this planting season as a way to support the community while fundraising for the new school continues.  The agronomist helped us learn how to fertilize the crops this time and we are hoping for a great yield because the planting was timed perfectly with the arrival of the winter rainy season.  The young women's saving society or ROSCA is learning how to cultivate land and supporting each other by sharing healthy messages. 

The land will soon be surveyed by the surveyor to give what they call a "topographic" map of the slope and the surroundings so that the plans for the new building can be adapted for the specific lay of the land. 

Meanwhile, wires delivering electricity to the community for the first time are coming closer to the new plot of land and people are excited to have the chance to have electricity - and lights at night!-  in their homes.

The brickmakers are practicing their brickmaking and construction skills by building new outdoor kitchens for families in the Village.  The water cooperative is learning how to manage a sustainable water supply.

The flute makers have added new flute players to their ranks and they are practicing with the traditional instruments together.  

We are so grateful for all your support and all the people send thanks from Cyaruzinge to those of you around the world who are making it possible to build a new future for their children!

• News from Cyaruzinge Village (PDF)
  

We thank the donors who have contributed towards this project so far! We have made good progress, and there remains more to do to reach our fundraising goal. We are still thoroughly convinced that this project of helping children from the poor and vulnerable community is a valuable approach to contribute towards a productive future society.

We are happy to report that now we are working with Tonkara scheme, an architecture firm in Yokohama, Japan. Our colleague, architect Mr. Yuya, is providing us his expertise. His exceptional design is based on his previous experience with UNICEF in Rwanda for similar work. Since we started working together, our previous ideas have been greatly enhanced with the addition of many new features. Thank you, Mr. Yuya!

In addition, Mr Yuya’s notion of collaborative design, whereby beneficiaries give their views and insight on the infrastructure before a final plan is determined, has been a unique addition to involving the community. We will have an interactive workshop with beneficiaries when travel restrictions are eased. We are also planning to link Mr. Yuya with a Rwandan company to facilitate acquiring relevant construction permits.

However, these arrangements--like anywhere else--have been disrupted due to COVID-19. Rwanda initiated a lockdown to halt the spread of virus in March. That lockdown has slowed activities and halted others momentarily. For instance, making appointments with district land offices has not been smooth, and the backlog has lengthened. We wait for the situation to return to normal so that a geological and topological survey can be done, and we are keen to get guidance from relevant local authorities.

Our plans to visit Rwanda in May to further consult with in-country stakeholders and village beneficiaries had to be postponed, again due to Covid-19. However, for the last four months we have been busy helping the same community with basic humanitarian needs. As the lockdown came into action, people who lived day-to-day faced hunger.

We have worked with the local government to provide food and soap and to restore piped water to the village. This assistance helped shield lives from the shock of necessary Public Health measures, like social distancing, to reduce virus spread.

We remain excited for this project and are working hard to ensure that it will be implemented successfully. We encourage referral to anyone who might be of help in any way towards building and implementing this exciting, holistic early childhood development centre in Rwanda.

Links:

• Pygmy Survival Alliance Home Page

We now have some preliminary design sketches for the school.  This is exciting progress as we can see that the Ministry of Education is supporting this new school too. We are excited to share these design ideas with our community.

The sketches show all sides of the building.  They comply with standards set by the government and will use local brick and stone. There will be windows and doors to allow free circulation of fresh air and easy entry and exit for the kids.  There will be a ramp to the upstairs so kids that have mobility challanges can get to their classrooms easily. 

We hope to addd a kitchen building and of course facilities for sanitation and hygiene.  There will be gardens nearby to help support the food services.  We hope to add a performance room and stage so that the performing arts is well supported.

During the building phase, we hope to build eco-toilets that have been designed in Rwanda and can help with the elimination of waste as well as the creation of fresh and wholesome fertilizer for use in the gardens that will significantly increase crop yield. 

We also hope that there can be workshops for the artisans who will make costumes, drums, and the wooden flutes that Batwa people have played for hundreds of years, known as the "Amakondera".  For that reason, we hope to name the new center the "Amakondera Institute for Culture and Early Childhood Education".

Andt for now, we have a good start!

• Architect Sketches (PDF)