In some Kilometers from the City of Kigali to Kinyinya, near the former compound of Radio Deutsche well, almost 3 KM from NYARUTARAMA Road, there is a Primary School and
Kindergarten named Peace and Hope Academy.
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| Some of the school rooms |
It is down there that there are some 150 students among them there are those
who come from poor families who earn free education, Thanks to the founder Albert
Musabyimana, a survivor of the Genocide against the Tutsi in which all his
parents and other members of the family were killed.
Peace and Hope Initiative
The Genocide of 1994 was planned and executed with such atrocity that
within 100 days it took the lives of more than million people of Rwanda. The survivors of the massacres were mainly
orphans, many of whom found themselves as children suddenly heads of the
household; widows, grandmothers living along without children or family, women
infected with AIDS as the result of victimization by rape, and those left
handicapped either physically or mentally. These massacres have left a
population traumatized, destitute, homeless and penniless, without the means to
survive on their own.
After the Genocide, an estimated 8000 orphans were left as heads of their
households, responsible before their time for the care of their sisters and
brothers as well as for other family members. These children found themselves
alone, traumatized, without care or support from their parents or any
parent-like figure, and without the financial resources to ensure that they would
be taken care of. They suffered
tremendously to survive and to keep their families together, assuming
responsibilities far beyond what any child should ever have to assume. Their
own childhoods were sacrificed, and their futures were extremely uncertain.
In 2002, 8 years after the Genocide, the first houses in the village de
Kinyinya were constructed by IBUKA to accommodate the families who were living
in the village in tents at the time. In 2005, 90 other houses were build and
the orphans who were head of households, the widows, the grandmothers, and
those afflicted with AIDS and physical or mental handicaps as the result of the
genocide were placed here. In June 2006, 11 duplexes were finally completed and
put at the disposal of people who had no homes and whom were living in very
vulnerable circumstances. In total, the village of Kinyinya is composed of 128
houses inhabited by the total of 525 people.
The inhabitants of the village were chosen from among the most deprived and
vulnerable people of each sector of the city of Kigali, approximately 2
families per sector. Finally, some of these people had a safe, secure place to
call home. Unfortunately, whereas in Kigali there might be the means to do and
odd-job for money, to beg, to be given charity or some food, on the outskirts
in Kinyinya these people now found themselves isolated. There was no livelihood
for the people who were relocated here, no means to provide food, education,
medicine, or employment. Several children died of malnutrition and disease in
2006 after the first year after relocation.
The state helped with schooling only until the end of high school. Food was
only provided on a sporadic basis. This precarious situation could not
continue. In response to this
life-threatening situation, the orphans in charge of their respective
households formed an organization in
2012 known as “Peace and Hope initiative ” The goals of this organization were to develop a plan to garner resources so
to enable these orphans to support themselves psychologically, address the
health needs of the orphans, aid in education, teach about health, and work on
developing sustainability projects so that they could feed themselves and
provide livelihood for themselves and their families.
In response to the continuation of desperate circumstances facing this
group of orphans as well as the community of Kinyinya at large, the idea was
conceived of to begin This Initiative in order to develop some projects in the
community at large that would be revenue-generating, self-sufficient and
sustainable in the long term.
In an interview with Albert
Musabyimana said “At the beginning we were mainly focusing on Genocide
Survivors families. It is at that time we launched the Kuraneza Early Childhood
Development (ECD) in 2012 with 48 vulnerable Kids from child-headed households
most of them were orphaned by the 1994 Genocide against Tutsis.”
Musabyimana noted that the
continuous progress of the School is the result of the donations from
benefactors with participation from the government of Rwanda and at his own
sacrifice as he had got a chance to get adequate Education with the financial
Support of the Rwandan Government which resulted in gaining a good paying work.
“The premises that we have today
are result of donations from supporters who have seen that what we is logic.”
He said.
“On our part we do also many
things to get to where we are and where we wish to be. Sometimes I use my own
money from my pocket to make the school running ahead. I do this bearing in my
mind what is my role as Rwandan and a survivor whose survival was due to the
struggle of the men and women of Rwandan Patriotic Front led by President Paul
Kagame. I thought how I can recognize what they have done for us who had not
voice and access to Education before the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.” Musabyimana
explained.
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| Peace and Hope Academy Extension Plan |
The Peace and Hope Academy plan
is to extend its premises to be able to serve over 400 children from different
parts of Kinyinya sector with special targets to children from Murama and
Gasharu cells.
Ndi Umunyarwanda and Free Education to poor families
Musabyimana noted that nowadays
the school is serving all Rwandan children without categorizing them as he has
seen that “It was some kind of discriminating which was not good as far as the
Ndi Umunyarwanda spirit is concerned.”
“As you know at the beginning the
first idea was to serve the Genocide Survivors community only. But when you
look far what we were doing was neither supporting the idea of Ndi Umunyarwanda
among our children. So we decided to open our school to all Rwandan children
irrespective where they come from and even their socio-economic status.” He
added.
Ndi Umunyarwanda translated into
English as “I am Rwanda” is a Government initiative introduced in 2013 with a
goal to build the national identity and to strengthen solidarity of Rwandan
people, uphold their moral and spiritual values by first making them understand
their rights as Rwandans.
In addition to other initiatives,
the Founder of Peace and Hope Academy said the school also provide free
education to poor families in the Kinyinya community.
Maria is in her twenties and a
cleaner at Peace and Hope Academy. Maria has known a very difficult past as a
result of poverty. She says she got pregnant when she was at school. At the
time when she begun to live a difficult life.
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| Maria benefits from Peace and Hope Academy Employment and Free Education for her Child |
“I came here in this village to
look for jobs (Ibiraka), sometime I got it and sometime not.” She says.
“But I had chance to get a
cleaner job here at Peace and Hope and after a while Albert told me to bring my
child to school. I told them that I can’t get school fees.” Maria explains.
“I remember it was in the morning
when Albert told me that my child will get free education and no need to worry
about school fees.” She further added.
“In reality I can’t imagine how
my child is getting free education and I get paid. My child studies and I get
paid. Since then my life has enormously changed.” She concludes.
Watch this Kinyarwanda Video Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVnAFaYkkG8&t=200s
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