By UWIZEYIMANA Jacqueline, Class of 2012

In Tikkun Olam there are different groups for the school, the clinic, and social affairs. Social affairs is then divided into five groups of 16 each, all from the *Urumuri* (seeds) grade, and there is one educator/counselor who guides each group and reminds us to clean the tools and to work hard. This year our group worked at two sites. In January we started to rebuild a house for a poor widow who lives with her son. She was sick and unable to work in order to earn money to rebuild her house. She didn’t have a door or windows so the youth of ASYV took initiative to rebuild it. We also helped to treat her for jiggers and left her with a system for collecting and storing water, so that now she is in a better condition. In the middle of June we began working in another place that was closer to our village. We helped another poor family of old people who were in need of a new kitchen. We helped them to rebuild their kitchen out of mud. We were met with some difficulties in this project because we didn’t have enough time to finish this project. Students preparing the mud to rebuild a house What we got from Tikkun Olam this year through building houses without any help, was to be focused on our projects, to have time management, and to feel someone else’s pain. This experience was also good because we have learned how to handle special cases or problems of different people who surround us, and to go the extra mile.