Restore the Rhythm of Life for 500 Rwandan Youth

The Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village heals and inspires Rwanda’s most vulnerable youth, transforming them into the next generation of ethical leaders. For us to succeed at turning traumatized children into confident and motivated change-makers, we need all of our students to believe that they can lead like ASYV alumna Peace Grace, founder of a new girl’s empowerment initiative called LIFT HER UP (LHU).

A graduate of our Class of 2013, Peace Grace is now majoring in Women’s Studies and International Relations at Agnes Scott College. Already the co-founder of ASYV’s Female Solidarity Legacy, a student group for girls focused on achieving gender equality, Peace Grace has continued her work for women by bringing something new to Agahozo-Shalom. Collaborating with the current members of Female Solidarity Legacy and Girl Up ASYV, a student group dedicated to teaching girls how to become “independent and self-reliant,” she designed LIFT HER UP. An expansive project with incredible potential, LIFT HER UP brings a remarkable series of educational workshops and panels to the Village.

Through LIFT HER UP, Peace Grace has spent this summer making a meaningful difference. Alumnae, including Peace Grace herself and Immaculee, who currently studies Public Health at Arizona State University, have come back to the Village to give advice and speak to their post-graduation experiences. Representatives of notable gap-year programs like Bridge2Rwanda have also visited to explain how the young women of the Village could benefit from their programs, and to help mentor our students in writing effective personal statements. LIFT HER UP’s most recent panel discussion even featured speakers like Laurie Toll Franz, Chair of ASYV’s Board of Directors, and Denise Umunyana, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of a Rwandan human resources start-up called Right Seat. They answered questions, discussed their professional experiences and encounters with sexism in the workplace, and counselled our students.

Moving forward, our students and alumni hope that LIFT HER UP will soon bring even more to the young women of Rwanda. Beyond plans to hold career guidance workshops in the near future, members of Female Solidarity Legacy and Girl Up ASYV also intend to introduce LHU to other schools around the country. As Peace Grace has said, LIFT HER UP is about teaching girls to lift each other up, and the girls of Agahozo-Shalom are planning to do just that, both for each other and for women across Rwanda. Thanks to these programs, as well as new opportunities like He for She, a gender-equality focused student group recently founded by the young men of the Village, all of our kids will soon have the support they need to make a difference as real leaders in Rwanda and around the world.

Links:

• Read More at our Blog
• Visit our Website

As a holistic learning community designed to heal and educate Rwanda’s most vulnerable youth, one of our top priorities at The Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village is to prepare our students for life after graduation. Through Formal Education and Life Enrichment Applied Programs, we strive to ensure that our kids are ready for higher education and sustainable employment. Because of a renewed emphasis on entrepreneurship, computer literacy, and English comprehension, we believe that our future graduates should be better equipped than ever before to lead fulfilling adult lives. We are excited to give you a glimpse into how these programs have already begun to change lives in the first term of 2017.

Rwanda is counting on young entrepreneurs to carry its rapid development forward, and thanks to your generosity our students are eager to contribute. With two years dedicated to studying personal finance, goal setting, and agribusiness, and one year dedicated to generating a realistic business plan, we are confident that our graduates will have a meaningful part to play in Rwanda’s burgeoning economy. In Term 1 of 2017, our S6 students even had the opportunity to go on an Entrepreneurship Field Trip with TechnoServe. Visiting five sites across Kayonza District, our kids enjoyed hands-on learning experiences with local entrepreneurs and met low-tech, low-cost innovators in accessible fields like agriculture and construction to gain a better appreciation for how they could create jobs to support themselves.

Rwandan employers have also identified a skill-gap in their country, and our computer literacy program is preparing our kids to help close this gap. With 90 new laptops and a robust curriculum already in action, our students are rapidly gaining experience in key programs like Microsoft Word. Many of our kids had never even touched a computer before coming to the Village, which makes their growing talent for typing and editing documents, including CV’s and cover letters, all the more impressive. Combined with an introduction to the basics of hardware and software in Term 1 of 2017, we believe that this level of computer literacy is critical to breaking the cycle of poverty.

Finally, with Rwanda’s rapid pivot to the East African Community, the English language has become integral to both education and commerce. By focusing on four key skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing, our revised program strategy is creating an immersive learning environment capable of giving our students the confidence they need to succeed. According to Naomi, our English Enrichment Fellow, English education in Term 1 of 2017 was both fun and innovative. Reviewing the basics of speech, verb tenses, and introductions, our youngest students expanded their English vocabularies. One student named Diane even managed to read 20 novels in just six weeks. As they get ready to tackle storytelling and reading comprehension in Term 2, our latest Enrichment Year has already gained the solid foundation they need to master the language.

In the ten years since we first broke ground on our Village, your compassion and abiding support have allowed us to transform 1,130 young Rwandans into true leaders and ethical change-makers. As we enter our second decade of operation, we hope that you will stand by us in making a difference for the children of Rwanda. 

Links:

• Agahozo-Shalom Website
• Agahozo-Shalom Blog