Building Two Classrooms for 700 Rwandan Children

Greetings Sanejo Family,

The Sanejo team hopes all is well in each and everyone of your lives.  We wish to inform you of some great news that will hopefully brighten your day.  This summer, because of your generous donations, Ntenyo Primary School was able to add three new classrooms to accommodate the young learners.  These improvements in educational infrastructure and teacher training are paramount in providing a foundation for underprivileged, yet highly talented, Rwandan children.  It's hard to imagine that as little as 2 years ago the Ntenyo Primary School was moments away from being torn down due to dilapidated facilities, and the result would have been catastrophic for many of the students.    

With this in mind, on behalf of the teachers, children, and community we would like to thank each of you for your continued support and share with you some of the tremendous achievements that have resulted from your contributions.  An itemized summary and video clip of the Summer 2011 accomplishments is attached for your review.  A few of the largest achievements include:

 1.  Three new classrooms. This means, in total, we have added five classrooms which are fully equipped with desks and storage units.

2.  Two complete foundations for classrooms 6 and 7

3.  New common learning areas for students of Ntenyo School in: P6, P5, P4a&P4b, P3a.

4.  Three water tanks to catch rainwater and water drainages on site

5.  Each teacher completed an English ESL test 

6.  Health and demographic data collection and analysis 

Without your contributions none of this would have been possible.  Thank you so much for being part of our family, thank you for caring, thank you for contributing to such an amazing project, thank you for changing lives.  Please contact us for any additional information or questions.  

Links:

• Updated Sanejo Website
• Summer 2011 Video Clip (Courtesy of YGAP)

• Summer 2011 Highlights (DOCX)

 June and July have brought change to Ntenyo. Over the last 3 weeks, Sanejo and YGAP volunteers from Rwanda, the US and Australia have been working tirelessly with the community to build an additional 3 classrooms at the Ntenyo primary school, assist the teachers with English-language training and inspire the P6 students to express their emotions creatively through art and theatre.

The classrooms have gone up quickly and this week, less than 4 weeks from the start of construction, sparks will begin flying as the local welder works to fit the tin roofs onto the classrooms.  Additionally, a large water tank will be completely installed by the end of the week, allowing the 800 children at the school to finally wash their hands and drink fresh water throughout the school day.

An unexpected impact of the project came last week when Emmanual, one of the long-term bricklayers at the school, pulled David (Sanejo Co-Founder) aside to tell him about the project he was able start at his home since working with Sanejo last year. “I was able to start a pig farm from the money I earned last year,” whispered Emmanual with a slight grin and usual twinkle in his eye. “Look around here,” he said, pointing to the building site, “Many of these people have started project to help their families from the money you paid us.”

A total of 13 returning builders from last year announced that they had been able to increase their annual income because of investments they had made with the savings they were able to put aside from working with Sanejo. Emmanual began his pig farm; another man bought a cow, another bought chickens, and one man even bought a bycicle, which he now uses to taxi people up and down the hills in Ntenyo for a small fee.

As similar stories continue to emerge from Ntenyo community members, it is obvious that the donations given by people all over the world through Global Giving are affecting a lot more people than the 800 (formerly 700) students at the school. Involving the wider community has created a deep sense of pride and ownership that continues to spread throughout the local hills.