Grace Rwanda, through PREFER, has supplied GS Cyuve and GS Karinzi,
secondary schools in the Cyuve Sector that will be accepting grades S 4, 5 & 6
for the first time, with the following supplies:

2 wooden bookcases with locking doors
1 television set
1 DVD/cd player
1 stereo player with speakers
Teacher manuals w/cd lessons
Student text books
Total per school
$1000.00usd

We took both head masters to Kigali to purchase their supplies. They were
both so very excited to have this opportunity to stock their schools with better
books and equipment than they had ever hoped for.

Making change in Rwanda
By Manisha Krishnan, North Shore News June 8, 2011

When bad things happen, the natural human instinct is to try to forget about them.

But sometimes, it can be crucial to remember, so that history doesn’t repeat itself. In the case of the Rwandan Genocide, the latter is true.

The Grace Rwanda Society, a B.C.-based non-profit organization that started up last spring, is dedicated to raising awareness about the genocide and supporting the educational system in Rwanda.

“The main reason we’re focusing on education is from the experience of our founders who are both genocide survivors. They strongly believe that part of the reason this happened was because you had a lot of illiteracy and a lot of uneducated young boys who were easily influenced to pick up a machete and go kill people just because they were told to do that,” says Franco Bordignon, a North Vancouver resident and president of Grace Rwanda.

The Rwandan Genocide happened in 1994, as a result of ethnic tensions between the minority Tutsi and the majority Hutu, who were in power at the time. The killings, which are estimated to have reached between 800,000 and 1 million, came after the 1990 civil war between the two groups. Through the use of propaganda, the Hutu-led government encouraged the elimination of Tutsis and pro-peace Hutus, who were said to be dangerous and untrustworthy.

It was an ordeal that changed the lives of Grace Rwanda founders Elizabeth Mujawamaliya Johnson, 43, and Marie Louise Kaligirwa, 44, who both currently reside in Langley, B.C.

Johnson and Kaligirwa were childhood friends who went to the same high school in the small village of Rwinkwavu. After graduation, they had no contact with each other and when the turmoil began, both assumed the other was dead.

In reality, Johnson’s father, two brothers, sister and seven of her nieces and nephews had been killed. But by sheer luck she and her daughter managed to survive, escaping a church filled with thousands of civilians who were almost all murdered.

“In my mind I was dead, because I was counting every second and every minute waiting for a machete, a club or (if lucky), a bullet. I was not expecting to survive,” says Johnson.

Kaligirwa, on the other hand, had married a Hutu and it ended up being her ticket to safety, as he paid off whomever he could to protect her. However, her two brothers and two sisters were all killed and her parents were already dead.

In the late ’90s, both women made their way to Canada, unbeknownst to each other. It wasn’t until Kaligirwa visited Vancouver while she was still living in Calgary that she found out about Johnson. Eventually the two reconnected and Kaligirwa moved to B.C.

“We are now like sisters because we shared the pain. Now we are sharing the joy of going back in Rwanda and help even helping those who killed our own family members,” says Johnson.

When Bordignon first met Johnson and Kaligirwa and heard their stories first-hand, he was deeply moved.

After spending some time together, the three of them began making moves towards forming Grace Rwanda. Last spring they gained charitable status and visited a small school in Rwinkwavu, which they’re committed to helping. So far, the money they’ve raised has gone towards creating an additional eight classrooms at the school.

They’re now working on building toilets — there are currently only eight to serve 1,400 kids — and constructing a new kitchen and library.

“Most of the children, the only meal they have is at the school . . . and that’s why some parents actually send their kids to school because they don’t have to worry about feeding them that day,” says Bordignon, explaining the current kitchen is a tiny, temporary shelter.

Despite all of the hardships that they face, Johnson said that there is still hope in Rwanda.

“We need to move from the wrong committed by our people and prove that we can rebuild our country. Reconciliation is the only remedy to a peaceful mind,” she says.

The society has held several events to reach out to the community, and recently St. Thomas Aquinas High School in North Vancouver donated more than $12,000 to the cause.

Next up, Grace Rwanda is hosting an awareness night featuring the Frontline documentary Ghosts of Rwanda, which examines how the Western world stood by as the massacre took place. Johnson and Kaligirwa will also share their moving stories of survival. The event takes place Sunday, June 12, 7 p.m. at North Lonsdale United Church, 3380 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver. Admission is free but donations are welcome. For more information go to www.gracerwanda.org.

© Copyright (c) North Shore News

Read more: http://www.nsnews.com/news/Making+change+Rwanda/4911974/story.html#ixzz1RO9YRqXg

Read the full article in The Province

Board members receive warm welcome at Rwinkwavu School

The schoolchildren are singing, dancing and drum­ming with all their hearts. Hundreds of villagers, their energy palpable, encircle their three visitors in jubilant celebra­tion, even encouraging the “Muzungus” (westerners) to join them in dance. Gratitude for their new school cannot be contained.

More than 600 students were part of the cel­ebration—with music, dancing and speeches–at the March 26 official announcement of Grace Rwanda’s partnership with the Rwinkwavu School. “Each speaker was so grateful for what Grace Rwanda has done,” says Franco Bordignon, Grace Rwanda’s vice chair. “I didn’t think we had done that much, but that’s not the way they saw it.”

The school that Grace Rwanda is helping to build has 1300 students, half studying in the morning and half in the afternoon. All the children walk to school; there are no bus­ses or parents dropping them off. Franco met one boy whose trip to and from school is 15 km; he starts walking to school at 5 a.m.

Franco traveled to Rwanda with Elizabeth Mujawamaliya Johnson, co-founder of Grace Rwanda and a Rwandan genocide survivor, and her husband Paul, the president of the organiza­tion. The welcome celebration, given in their honour, was just one of the highlights from their three weeks in Rwanda. The event was broadcast later that day on Rwandan national news.

During the trip, the board members saw the eight-classroom addition that Grace Rwanda had funded. Although the rooms still lack some finishing touches, the students were able to start taking classes indoors before the start of the rainy season.

On an April 3 community service day, villagers provided volunteer labour to complete the sidewalks around the new addition. Grace Rwanda funds were used to purchase the sand and gravel and to pay the ce­ment masons, but the rest of the labour to build the addition was provided by student and parent volunteers. Young students teamed up to carry buckets of water and sand, motivated by the prospect of new classrooms.

Another purpose of Grace Rwanda’s journey to Rwanda was to meet with Rwinkwavu civic leaders, the school principal and teachers. Together, they discussed the community’s needs and ways Grace Rwanda could continue to assist. A kitchen will be one of the next Grace Rwanda partnership projects. The school’s 1940’s kitchen was recently demolished due to safety concerns, with a small temporary one currently taking its place. For most of the children, their only meal is the one the school provides.

The visiting board members also met with Rwandan government and industry leaders. They spoke to representatives of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Meetings with the Rwandan Development Board and a coffee co-operative representing 1000 farmers may lead to direct Rwandan imports, which will assist Grace Rwanda in fundraising.

Finally, Grace Rwanda needed to finalize arrangements for a Grace Rwanda in-country agent to be in charge of the organization’s Rwanda-side opera­tions. Franco, Elizabeth and Paul are pleased to announce that Kigali-based Apollinaire Kayumba will assume this position, bringing Grace Rwanda one step closer to being able to effectively assist post-genocide communities.