In December 2024, we officially opened the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village’s new Betty Wright music studio, created with support from friend of ASYV Steven Greenberg. The studio will help our students heal their hearts, hone their talents, and launch careers in Rwanda’s music industry. ASYV alumni thriving in Rwanda’s music and arts scene and other popular musicians joined us to celebrate the occasion and talk music with our kids.Third-year student Ngoga Denny created a film capturing the day’s events. 

By Ngoga Denny, ASYV Class of 2026

My father was a photographer, but he did not continue because he joined the army. I touched a camera for the first time when I entered ASYV. People in the Village started telling me, “You take good photos.” I said, “It’s my first time taking a camera, how can I be good at taking photos?” But due to this encouragement, I kept putting in energy and trying to live up to what my Dad did. 

Today, I’m a person who tries to showcase my ideas through filmmaking. I want to challenge myself creatively every single day. When I wake up, I just want to make the next step in the next video I'm producing. When people see my videos, I want them to say, “Wow.” 

I was asked by JC, ASYV’s CEO, to film the recording studio opening because he wanted the best video, and that is what I tried to deliver. It was a tremendous pleasure to film the video. There were lots of superstars visiting, and it was a really good experience to have them in my frame. The studio is going to help student directors film music videos and student musicians produce songs. When I made the video, I took my time to plan and visualize every single shot. I listed the questions I would ask my interviewees. I tried to build a story about how the students and the entire Village are very grateful for the studio and about how we celebrated it. As you can see in the video, everyone was smiling, singing, and dancing because of this amazing studio.