Looking forward:

Dear Friends of Rwanda Rising

I always knew that the kids we sponsored in Primary and Secondary were deeply grateful for the opportunity to study with full stomachs, sufficient materials and equalizing uniforms. And I learned that those who, with good intelligence and diligent work, earned scholarships to university were committed to give back.  Witness to this is that almost all 25 scholarship winners have chosen teaching or medicine!  

Now I see how motivating is their gratitude and real is their commitment.  Most of our university students send a portion of their very modest stipend back to family.  They give time to tutoring poor kids, mentoring younger students, founding or leading student Community Service groups.  Graduates sponsor siblings in secondary and even university. When I was recently in Rwanda, they initiated a plan to form an Alumni Association of the over 200 we have sponsored to continue this work.  “We see you are getting old” they offered, “just as we begin our new lives with capacity to give as we were given to.” Below you can read how they put that into action.

 Their purpose will gradually find traction and they will multiply our good works many times over.  The foundation of all the good that has already come to pass and that is to come is the 3 years of formative boarding school that, without our sponsorship, would never have been possible for their desperately poor families.  Rwanda Rising will increase to 50 this year our boarding school kids.  The six who graduated university this year are being replaced by five new scholarship winners for a total of ten. In addition, 5 prior secondary grads have enrolled in a nearby private university to become teachers after 4 or 5 years of working and starting families.  We will partner with them to meet their study costs.    

Origin Story of Rwanda Rising

by Founder John Jordan

In 2009 I accepted an invitation from a Rwandan Grad student here to “come and help” the  mothers and grandmothers  struggling to feed and house scores of orphans in his rural township.  A few locals welcomed me and gathered widows and grandmothers from the hills. Their unified voice asked for new roofs, food and school fees for their kids languishing at home.

I assembled a young team and we sought a sustainable approach to the extensive needs.

We came up with a plan aimed at better health: new metal roof over half the house so there are dry rooms to gather and sleep. Capture rain water off the clean roof in a 100 ltr barrel with a faucet. Replace the harmful and inefficient 3 stone fire pit with an efficient, smokeless clay stove. Build a large raised bed garden in front yard for vegetables. Provide the necessary blankets, pots and a hoe. We could do it for $200 and we rehabilitated 2 homes a week for 6 weeks. My money was running short.  I promised to fund the team to continue the work but school fees would have to wait.

One week before I was due to leave, I visited a secondary boarding school at the outskirts of town. As I walked up the front steps, 8 kids stood up and made room.  It was curious because students were still in holidays.  Inside, the Headmaster explained that invitation to a boarding school required passing the National exam in 9th grade in top 30%.  Then, of course, the family had to pay $250 for the year – an amazing bargain for those who could afford it.  And the kids on the steps?

 “We get a number of scholarships each year which go to qualifying poor students.  Unfortunately, never enough.  Sometimes, in the last days another scholarship gets passed to us. They will wait a week or 10 days in hopes of getting it. Some of them waited here last year too.”

That night I called my wife in Victoria and toward the end of the call told her what I had seen.

“Well,” she said, “what are you going to do about it”?

“Nothing I can do. I’m here for the grandmothers.  And I don’t have the money.”

“Just don’t plan on coming home until all those kids are enrolled.  I’ll send the money.”

That was it. Starting the next day, I was there for grandmothers and for students.  It has remained so ever since though, after rehabbing 225 houses, we had covered our walkable territory.  In recent years we have focused more on getting kids into school and introducing new simple technologies like efficient wood stoves, water collection systems and decent latrines.  We have, or are supporting, about 80 kids in 2 nursery schools, 290 youth through 3 year secondary boarding and 25 who earned tuition scholarships through university. 

Of all, I’d have to say, it is the educated kids that make the biggest long term difference. Browse my album to see what we bring to this community and its neediest families.  See my budget page for what you might want to support. It will be among the best investments you’ll ever make and I’ll be sure you are kept informed about it.

I wish you an abundance from which to share.  

John

History

2023

2023: Graduated four of our university scholarship winners from university. With $100 living stipend they brought themselves successfully through as Educator, Nurse, Accountant and Electrical Technician.  With the help of the Oak Bay Rotary Foundation we put 3 former Uni grads into MA programs: one in Environmental Science, our doctor into his chosen specialty, Gynecology and Obstetrics and an accountant into Project Management.

2023: Completed the fifteenth six-month training program for mothers of underweight kids, now totaling 150 moms.