Rwamagana School, Rwanda
During our trip, Nicole and I went with Beata and her friend, Gerard, to visit a school out in Rwamagana. The trip was to find a possible location for the next Wall of Words program.The way that we are conceiving the Wall of Words program, the Foundation will work with several schools in proximity to each other and follow them for an extended period of time. We will help these schools build sustainable collections that suit their groups of students.
The set-up of the school we visited is a little bit confusing. There are two schools – one primary, one secondary – operating under the same name. The primary school students are in a new building and the school is fully supported by a group of Catholic donors from Italy. The secondary school was built by the government, has the same name, but is not supported by the group of donors, and is not, in fact, Catholic (since it was built by the government).
The secondary school is a separate school because the government required it to be built as part of the primary 1-9 education for all initiative. It houses grades 7, 8, and 9. The group of donors does not fund it.
So, the secondary school lacks a donor base and, consequently, does not have enough materials for its students. Unfortunately, I don’t know that this will be a match for Wall of Words, because we are seeking to help primary school students, as a means of catching them early in their education.
However, that is very unfortunate for the children that are in secondary education and are just as in need of reading materials. But I have had little success in finding secondary-level reading materials in Rwanda.
We are still thinking about what we can do for this school. They are waiting for laptops from the government, but they don’t even have electricity to power them. The staff was embarrassed because the teacher’s area is a classroom with no seating, so we, their guests, were forced to stand.
We took photos of the school and interacted with the primary school students that are awaiting being moved into their new building. The secondary school students were in class. We took video of the school roofs for the potential of installing a solar power system in the future. But what will they do until then?
Ashley
