How to wash the hands of the 3- and 4-year-olds? That was the question. This helpful step is the answer.
School re-opens
The first day of school is always exciting, and returning after a shutdown because of coronavirus was even more so.
Most of these kids had not seen each other since March, and here it was November.
It has always been the tradition that I walk our kids to school on the first day. I did that this year also. I rose early, dressed and sat at my desk waiting for my kids to arrive, ready for the walk to school.
In other years, I joined 26 kids on that walk, and it was a lot of fun. The kids laughed, joked and sang as we bumped across the football field. They chased each other. They were excited. School is the best place for them to be, and seeing friends again after a break is such a joy.
In 2020, I was walking again, but this year was definitely different. I walked with only two kids, not 26. Face masks hid the joy. Distancing even with only two made bumping and jostling impossible. Singing did not happen as singing may spread the virus. What was once a time of joy now has a sad overtone. It is so hard for the kids when they can’t run to their friend and hug that friend as they gather for opening exercises. Now they go directly to the classroom. There is no opening exercise.
I must say the teachers have followed the rules set in place. They are assigned a post. Two are at the gate with sensor thermometers. Others are manning the 20 wash stations. Each teacher has a bottle of green liquid soap and is ready to squirt the soap into eager outstretched hands.
Green liquid soap
After washing, they are directed by a guard to move directly to their respective classrooms.
The teachers, students and classrooms are ready.
In our school, each child has a desk. This is not true in public schools. Distancing is easier for us. We also limit the number of students per classroom. In public schools, a classroom can have 60 students. I am not sure how they will handle distancing.
School has begun.
Mama’s book
For some time now, I have been sharing with you the expected birth of my book. Yep, it is like giving birth. The process takes too long and the labor pains seem to go on forever. Finally, the book is produced. Like with a newborn, I am hoping and praying all is well and everyone will love the new (book) baby.
So, OK. Because I am 89 years old, a baby is not possible, but a new book is. Hope you all like my creation.
My manuscript is “Hope Made Real.” It is now a book and is available in ebook and paperback. While the book can be purchased in several locations, here is the Internet address for people to order my book directly from the bookshop where we earn a great deal more on each book sold. https://store.bookbaby.com/book/hope-made-real
Please note all proceeds from the book go to the Urukundo Learning Center Education Fund.
More information is available on the website. Check in there, please.
Book front cover.
Path to Learning
The Path to Learning started in 2012.
Now that the wall is finished, the stones on the Path to Learning will be mounted on the inside wall.
The very first stones on the Path to Learning were mine and Ellen Galloway’s. Ellen has contributed her talents in helping to edit my book, “Hope Made Real,” due to be published very soon.
These stones are an example of how the entire wall will look. The stones will not be walked on.
What is the path? Well, it started and remains as a way to secure funding for education. The idea was -- and is -- that a $100 gift for funding education would result in a stone being added to the path in the donor’s name. Great idea.
Visitors liked the stone idea as a commemoration of their visits to Urukundo. Now it also is a memorial to those we have loved and have moved beyond the hurts of this life.
The fund and the path continue to grow. The path has gone from being a path to being a memory lane with plaques on the wall.
New wall space is available for stones. They can be in honor of, in memory or with love.
The originator of the idea of the Path to Learning was John Green, a fellow Christian from Saint John’s Newberry United Methodist Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, USA, and a former treasurer of Hope Made Real.
School calendar changes
Thanks to our generous donors, Urukundo has survived with all employees intact and is waiting for the government to give a back-to-work ruling. We will continue using only one gate, washing hands before entering and wearing face masks in public.
Even after the ban on large gatherings is lifted, schools will not open until September 2020.
The Ministry of Education has been trying for some time to change the school year from January to November to September to June. They have decided it would be the opportune time to do this because of losing the school year.
Our kindergarten will be the only class moving up. All other classes will remain as they are. We will not have a graduation ceremony in 2020. The sewing center and Primary 1 through Primary 6 will repeat the 2020 year. It will now be the 2020-21 year. This means our first grade will double in size and our preschool will accept new students if the space is available.
What does this mean to me? Well, we will need more classrooms for Primary 1 and following that, more teachers. We were able to build two classrooms with gifts and donations that came during January and before the virus disrupted our cash flow. It will be necessary to build two more classrooms now because of the government change.
It is pushing us to move ahead of schedule and change our priorities. We had planned to renovate our kitchen from cooking with wood to propane gas in 2021. That would mean gutting the kitchen and bringing in gas cookers. That will have to wait. Wood has become a problem. We know continuing to down trees is part of the problem with mud flooding. Africa needs to allow its jungles to return to improve the environment.
More classrooms
In an earlier newsletter, I shared the need for bricks to build two classrooms. The response was awesome. Thank you to all who helped to purchase bricks. Funds came in to buy not only the needed bricks but also to complete building the two classrooms.
Work began at once. Although the classrooms were not expected to be finished soon, the donations for building the classrooms were more than enough for bricks, and we went ahead and finished the two classrooms. Never dreaming the coronavirus would happen and funding would be a bit scarce.The mandated shutdown took place March 21, but the sector allowed Urukundo to finish building using only two workers from the community on the site at a time. Keeping social distancing.
It took until the end of April to finish the project.
Two new classrooms finished and ready for the start of school. The computer lab now will have a home base. The second room is to reduce the number of children per classroom. We try to keep the number in a classroom to no more than 30 children.
Thank you all for the gifts that made this possible.
Sewing Center moving into the future
New trainer Epiphany became part of the Urukundo family at the Sewing Center. We welcome Epiphany and the wisdom and talent she brings with her. She joined head trainer (teacher) Theresa.
Trainers at the Sewing Center. Theresa and Epiphany.
Our students now have two qualified trainers, and the school is blessed.
Epiphany is a mom with three children. She has 20 years as a trainer in sewing plus computer skills, and, for a bonus, she understands and speaks English. This is a big help to Mama and the school.
With the new classroom, we now have the facility for teaching our sewing students other subjects required by our curriculum, including English. Our English teacher, Remy Paul, meets with the students in the classroom twice a week.
Our final university graduates for 2019
It was such a pleasure to attend the graduation of Divine Uwonkura. Divine graduated from the University of Kigali.
Divine’s university of choice. The celebration was very impressive.
Auditorium
The graduation was held at the Intare Conference Arena, Rusororo.
Divine was our first girl and the start of our Urukundo Family in 2006. We have watched her as she has matured into the young woman you see today. Divine finished her university classes in 2018. Her formal graduation ceremony took place on Dec. 6, 2019.
Recently, she has been manager of Urukundo University House in Kigali City as she prepares and hopes to go to an aviation school in Florida, USA.
Congratulations, Divine.
Special congratulations go to Urukundo Foundation’s Executive Director Jean Marie Ntwari on achieving his master’s degree in business administration on Dec. 13. He has worked hard to reach this goal. Who knows, maybe someday in the future is his doctorate?
Urukundo Foundation takes great pleasure in congratulating all of our university students for a year of success. Well done.
This has been an awesome year in education. To bring you current:
Early in Urukundo’s history and before our kids were ready for university, our priority was to help staff members achieve their goals. Those who benefitted from your generosity are:
Mary Claire Nishimwe (social worker in Kigali); Etienne Santore (Internet tech); Juliette Musabyemariya (human resources director, Urukundo Foundation);
Emmanuel Iyamarere (businessman); Jolly Kabihogo (owner and operator of a day care); Irene Dushimimana (headmaster, Urukundo Learning Center); Oliver Kansiime (head of dental clinic, Urukundo Village);and Jean Marie Ntwira (executive director, Urukundo Foundation).
Our first family of Urukundo kids has reached university age. I list for you our graduates: Amin Niyonkuru, Seraphine Izabayo, Solange Nirere, Tresor Cyubahiro,
Divine Uwonkura, Alexander Prince and Lillian Wishavura. We have currently 13 attending university and graduating in the next three years.
We have an education fund that provides funding so our unsponsored kids and community children can attend preschool and primary by keeping tuition affordable. The fund also helps provide for secondary students (high school) and university students who are not sponsored.
I thank all of the sponsors and those who contribute to the education fund for making it possible for our students to achieve the higher education that is so essential to a better life and reaching their goals.
I thank all who care, share and help make a difference. Hope Made Real.
Graduation at last
While we wait for the National Exam results, we have our own graduation celebration. All children from preschool to Primary 6 and the Sewing Center students invite their parents and friends to come and see what they have learned in the past year.
The day starts very early at the school. Kids and parents gathered with the graduates at the school for the walk to the main road and up the street to the Urukundo main gate and then to the site set up for the graduation.
The march from the school to the site of graduation is a spectacular parade.
Blue and gold are the colors of the kindergarten graduates.
Awesome sight. What a parade! The graduates sing as they march to Mama’s gate. They enter and proceed to the soccer field where many tents are erected to protect guests from the sun and possible rain. This is the rainy season, you know.
We were blessed with a no rain day.
Primary 6 in caps and gowns. Each group has different colors. Black and green is Primary 6.
It is about one city block on the main road from the road to the school to Mama’s gate. Neighbors come out to watch and cheer the graduates on.
Sewing Center students bring up the rear. We are so proud of these young adults and their accomplishments. White and blue really stand out. One of the school projects is to make their own caps and gowns. They did a good job.
Entering mama’s gate. Teachers walk with the kids.
Greeting Mama and Pastor Yves. What joy! Until last year, I walked with the children and loved it. It is hard for me to not join the march, but age has a way of slowing us down. So I wait at my home gate and greet the students as they enter. I am honored to have Pastor Yves there with me, also greeting the kids.
Older grads wait while kindergarten kids are seated. It is quite a process. My home is in the background.
I do walk from my home to the celebration and make a grand entrance.
Left to right: guests of honor were Fortune Mukagatana, Muhanga vice mayor of social affairs; Florence Marie Uwanyirigira, Rwanda Parliament deputy; myself; my assistant, Olive Nyiracumi; Clare Effiong, leader of Esther’s Aid Culinary Arts School; Jean Marie Ntwari, executive director of the Urukundo Foundation, and Angelique Westmark, a volunteer from Germany.
What an interesting group! We were honored.
The Primary 6 graduates of last year were special guests.
Our university students came to support the younger students and to share in the program.
It was such a thrill for me to see so many of our university students arriving. They seldom are home together, so it was special for them also.
What a group!
This year at graduation we featured the development of the music program, starting with the All School Chorus.
The All School Chorus led us in the national anthem
Music is appreciated in our school. Being able to introduce music to our students is such a blessing.
This young girl learned to play the keyboard. This is an accomplishment worth doing.
African drums and guitar add to the music program and are so special. Drums are a part of the culture.
These drums were rented for the occasion. Some day we will purchase our own. They can be purchased here in Rwanda. We encourage both types of drums as great musical instruments.
Our orchestra is made up of flutes and violins. Wonderful music was presented by our own students. Parents were impressed. More instruments are needed.
Last but not least in the music program, our children respect their heritage and learn cultural singing and dancing.
We are very proud of our progress in developing the music program.
Developing an art program is next on the agenda.
This group is amazing.
Precision marchers from Primary 4 and Primary 5
In sync
Certificates were presented to kindergarten graduates. Each was signed by Mama and Headmaster.
Primary 6 students receive certificates after National exams. The Sewing Center certificates also are given at a later time.
The Tom Nunnally award for an outstanding student in the Sewing Center went to 22-year-old Germaine Iradukunda. This award is given each year by the Forest Hills Rotary Club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, in honor of deceased Rotarian Tom Nunnally.
Presenting the award is head of the sewing center, Theresa Mukabanana, and Florence from Rwanda Parliament.
It is difficult to get a really good group picture of all the graduates, but we tried.