As we all spend time reflecting on the events of this past year, Grace Rwanda would like to take the opportunity to update you on how your generous financial contributions during 2011 helped change the lives of children in rural Rwanda.

Completed Projects 2011

Kitchen

Starting in August 2011, Grace Rwanda undertook the construction of a new kitchen facility for a 1500 students elementary school in Rwinkwavu, Rwanda.  The new facility, along with our donation of two cows enables the school to provide the children with a lunch that consists of porridge, fresh vegetables, and African tea.

Mini-Libraries

Five education facilities–four schools and one orphanage– were outfitted with Mini-Libraries consisting of a standing cupboard filled with a variety of English language books.  The language of instruction in Rwanda has recently changed from French to English, and schools are desperate for English language materials.

Latrines

Sixteen new latrines at the school in Rwinkwavu help reduce the risk of illness by providing children with clean and and sanitary facilities. The ability to provide segregated facilities is also an incentive to help keep the older girls attending school.

Projects for 2012

Grace Rwanda is committed to continuing providing elementary schools with Student Resources Mini-Libraries within the Eastern Province of Rwanda. Each Mini-Library cost $1,500 and provides basic reading materials for an elementary school.

Grace Rwanda looks forward to continuing our work in Rwanda and hope that we can also count on your continued patronage.

Your donations are needed by, and truly do make a difference to, the children of Rwanda

Tax receipts will be issued for donations of $10.00 or more.  Donations can be made in two ways:

1) Donate online: http://www.gracerwanda.org/donate/

2) Mail a cheque dated before December 31, 2011

Grace Rwanda Society
#46, 8675 209 Street
Langley, British Columbia, V1M 3W6
info@gracerwanda.org
604-418-4101

Wishing you a season of peace and joy,
Grace Rwanda Society

Read the full article in The Province

Grace Rwanda Society was founded in response to the events in Rwanda of 1994. In 100 days between April 6th to July 4th, genocide claimed the lives of approximately one million people in Rwanda.  Grace Rwanda Society’s response is a commitment to supporting education for Rwanda’s young people. We believe that with education, Rwanda’s young people will continue to educate themselves and others, helping to create and sustain peace in Rwanda and in the world.  Our core values are compassion, accountability, respect, and empowerment.

Our vision

That every child and youth in Rwanda has the opportunity to live in a supportive, vibrant, literate and healthy community. We believe that equal opportunity to universal education is essential to building this kind of community.

Our work in the Eastern Province of Rwanda will become our model for spreading throughout the country of Rwanda.

Our Mission

Grace Rwanda provides educational support for the children and youth of Rwanda by building collaborative partnerships and sharing resources, skills and funds and educating about Rwanda in Canada and the United States.

Compassion

We will serve with empathy to alleviate distress and poverty.

Accountability

We will be accountable for the resources entrusted to us by others, adhering to the highest ethical standards.

Respect

We humbly commit to seeking to understand, valuing individual worth and diverse voices.

Empowerment

We will assist in strengthening community development that invests in sustainable economic, social and spiritual life.

Rwandan Genocide

A Brief History

The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 saw the massacre of civilians –- primarily Tutsi –- as the attempted peace accord between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda broke down. The Hutu militia marked all Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers for extermination, and a 100-day reign of terror began hours after Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana was assassinated on April 6.

Estimates of the number dead vary from 800,000 to 1,000,000 million people. Victims were typically butchered by machete. Given the population of Rwanda at the time of the slaughter, these estimates represent approximately 20% of the population – 400 people every hour, 7 people every minute.

UN troops were deployed to Rwanda late 1993 to oversee the peace accord under the leadership of UN Forces Commander-Canadian Forces General Romeo Dallaire. Heroically, Dallaire defied the UN directives in April 1994 to withdraw from Rwanda, and he remained with a small contingent of peacekeepers – spectators to the crime of genocide. Although Dallaire sought to direct UN and International attention to the horrific events occurring in Rwanda, the genocide was almost wholly ignored. Today, Dallaire’s work focuses on stopping the use of children as soldiers.

Rwandan survivors of the genocide –- many of them women who had been subject to genocidal rape, now deemed a crime against humanity –- were left to live out their personal grief as orphans, widows, HIV survivors and often sole survivors of their families.

Grace Rwanda seeks to extend mercy and caring to all Rwandans by investing in the youth of Rwanda and the communities in which they are a part.

Rwanda Fast Facts

• Rwanda is home to approximately 8 million people
• 60% of Rwandans live below the poverty line
• 67% of Rwandans are age 25 years or younger
• 64% of youth have lost both parents
• 10% of the Rwandan population are youth who are heads of families
• A Rwandan survey identifies 50% of boys and 90% of girls have never participated in organized sports
• Rwanda’s population growth rate of 2.9% will result in 16 million people by 2020

Statistics courtesy of Rwandan Government National & the Government of Kayonza District