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Sponsoring Students and Building Families
- Geoff Bartlett
- Dec 13, 2024
- 3 min read
“These children make me really happy - as soon as they get their report cards they call me to tell me their marks. You can see that they are smart children with a bright future from the marks they get. Watching them children develop and their parents being able to cater for their families brings me joy.” - Jean-Baptiste, community facilitator for the project
Pacifique is a seventeen year old student sponsored by an AEE Rwanda school support project. He says, “I used to have problems studying due to not having school books or writing materials, or not being able to pay the school fees. I would get sent away from school.”
When Pacifique was sent home, he would find work for a couple of days to be able to buy what he needed – “The thought of dropping out of school crossed my mind, but I did not want to drop out and be left behind.”
This was six years ago, when he was struggling to finish primary school. Now he is in his final year of senior school. The project has supported Pacifique with school materials and, through a savings group comprising parents of supported children, has helped his mother build a sustainable income for all the family.
With loans from the savings group, Pacifique’s mother, Lawrence, is buying avocados from growers to transport to Kigali markets – waking up at 5AM to visit distant villages, find ripe avocados, negotiate with the grower, hire pickers and a bicycle to transport them back to her home, but she can make five thousand Rwandese francs in a day, far better than the one thousand to two thousand francs that is common for a casual farm labourer. Lawrence is proud of her achievements, “I have been able to rent land for growing food. Before, I did not have chairs - now I have chairs. And Pacifique is able to go to school consistently and has food at home.”
As Pacifique finishes his final year of senior school, his favourite subjects at school are chemistry, history (particularly Rwandese history), mathematics, and Kiswahili. He hopes to attend a technical school in 2025 to learn automotive mechanics, because “once you finish the training and get the equipment it is easy to get a job and earn money.”
AEE Rwanda’s student sponsorship projects are intended to get children through school who may otherwise miss out, but also to build their family’s financial security and resilience – tackling the root caused of poverty.
Jean-Baptiste is the volunteer community facilitator for the project. He leads the savings groups, and works with AEE Rwanda project officers to change mindsets, “because most of the families were suffering from poverty due to bad mentality. But when we meet, we help them with planning income generating activities and give them training on how to live in harmony at home. We also visit them at home to understand how they are living.”
The project started in 2022, at a time, Jean-Baptiste says, when many children were dropping out of the G.S. Zivu school due to poverty. AEE Rwanda and Jean-Baptiste worked with local leaders to identify the children most in need with a good chance of doing well at school - an approach Jean-Baptiste believes has succeeded, "you can see that they are smart children with a bright future from the marks they get.”
Rachel is in Primary 3. She has been sponsored for those first three years as her family could not pay for school fees or materials. With assistance from the project and the parents' savings group, Rachel’s family are rearing goats for sale and have been buying plantains from farmers to sell at market. The income they make from this has helped to pay for health insurance, buy mattresses, and rent a field where they plan to grow maize next season.
Rachel has taken well to school. Her marks are at the top of her class and she is a keen dodge-ball player. While the project pays for Rachel’s school materials, the increased family income keeps Rachel’s sister Pascaline in school too.
For more information on this or similar projects, please contact AEE Rwanda at aee@aeerwanda.ngo
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