Nearly 300 members of our Village family from the United States, Rwanda, and around the world joined us to celebrate ASYV and honor the Ayers Foundation with the Anne Heyman Spirit Award. Thanks to our community's generosity, Village Time has raised nearly $650,000 and counting in support of our kids!

The start of the new year, with our Enrichment Year (first-year) students beginning their transformative four-year journey, is always one of the most meaningful times in the Village. 

We sat down with Frank Gentil, a refugee student from the DRC, to hear about his first month at ASYV. We also talked with the three founders of ASYV’s new robotics club.

At ASYV, we work to help our kids discover their passions and talents, then develop the skills they need to turn those interests into thriving careers. This includes pairing students with internship and continued learning opportunities in fields they love. We sat down with four students to discuss their summer activities.

In addition, we discuss the impact of three years of the Educational Resilience Program, our national teacher training initiative.

Read our annual report covering the 2023–2024 school year, Healing the Heart, Repairing the World. In its pages, you'll find the voices of many of our family members, including students, alumni, and staff. Student Teta Deborah Butati tells us, “When you want to change the world, you first change the community you’re in.”

On May 24, the 126 members of our Inganji (meaning “victory” and “celebration” in Kinyarwanda) Grade walked to receive their diplomas. They also embraced the futures full of possibility they worked to build in the Village. Watch highlights from their graduation ceremony. In addition, learn how one new graduate found inspiration to start her own business.

This April marks the start of the 30th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Throughout all 100 days of commemoration, we honor the memory of the more than one million Rwandans whose lives were brutally extinguished, and we recommit to always uniting against hate. In this post, members of our Village community reflect on Kwibuka 30.

2024 has been packed with new programs and new experiences. Our new vocational training program is providing our kids with crucial skills to launch their careers. We organized a Grand Study Tour, so that our fourth-year students could see Rwanda and better visualize all the possibilities their futures might hold.

In addition, the new ASYV Early Childhood Development Center opened and is now supporting our staff and their children. One of our very own ASYV alumni helped lead the center's development and launch.

This school year, fourth-year student Amata Belyse founded the ASYV Sign Language Club. She wanted to give her brothers and sisters the tools to connect with people in their communities who have hearing or speaking impairments.

In addition, third-year student Leila Ihezagirwe discusses why she designed and built a lamp that is accessible to people with disabilities.

I believe the most authentic way to honor and cherish Anne's memory is to keep transforming tragedy into a powerful force for positivity and lasting impact. Anne was a visionary leader who possessed an unwavering compassion and an unyielding commitment to helping others — with her greatest efforts placed into providing a nurturing and supportive haven for orphaned and vulnerable youth in Rwanda.

In late September, we were thrilled to welcome the students of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) back for the 2023–2024 school year. These students included our 130 first-year kids. There are few moments as special as greeting our newest family members, knowing all the opportunity that lies ahead of them. 

Meanwhile, our older students began the year with a renewed commitment to Tikkun Olam—repairing the world—and to expressing themselves through passions like painting.

The theme of the 2024 edition of the Liquidnet Student Magazine is “Be the Change, Write Your Own Story.” Expressing yourself through writing is powerful and liberating. Imagine crafting worlds, evoking emotions, and sharing ideas—all through words.

Before the Grand Study Tour, like most Rwandans, I would use the statement “a land of a thousand hills,” but I couldn’t imagine how a country like Rwanda, which is among the smallest in the world, could actually hold a thousand hills. By the time our bus approached the Western Province, I was very amazed. 

A poem by Ihimbazwe Umutesi Tumusifu, ASYV Class of 2024

One day, I was sitting in an electronics class, and the teacher explained that in this class, we are trained to become problem solvers. In my home community, I often saw people with missing limbs and trouble moving. I started thinking about a project I could make that would help people with physical disabilities.

Third-year student Pacifique Ishimwe discusses a Tikkun Olam—repairing the world—initiative he started to help students at a primary school neighboring ASYV learn English. Prior to coming to the Village, Pacifique attended the school himself.

Visual art is my rhythmic breath. A dance of inhales and exhales, where each stroke births beauty born of creation and dreams. In this space, knowledge graciously steps aside, allowing the boundless expanse of imagination to take center stage—meaning that knowing is nothing at all but to imagine is everything.

We are exhilarated to share the 2023 edition of the student-produced Liquidnet Magazine with you, the ASYV community. We have no doubt that you are going to enjoy this masterpiece filled with written expressions and emotions made as we embrace the culture of writing, strive for success, and wrap up this academic year of 2022–2023.

Below is the text of the valedictorian speech I gave at my graduation. I wanted to submit it to Bwira News in the hope it may inspire others to learn something and/or pursue their passions.

On March 10, we held a workshop for girls interested in writing prose and/or poems exploring their own lived experiences with gender-based issues and their feelings on working together to overcome them. Three second-year students, Ruth Kayatesi, Esther Mukakamanzi, and Deborah Butati, shared the poems they wrote for Bwira News.

Catch up on the latest happenings at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV). All news updates are student performed, edited, and produced in collaboration with Enock Mutabazi, ASYV Class of 2022 and current Media Intern.