This past week, the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village commemorated the 24thanniversary of the Genocide against the Tutsi. This profound event, known asKwibuka, or “remember,” serves as a call to memorialize those who were lost in the genocide, to heal those who survived, and to understand the past as Rwanda moves forward.
Read MoreThe Class of 2021 has chosen its name: Umucyo!
In addition to each grade choosing a name for itself, the newly formed Enrichment Year families choose the family name that will be theirs forever. Each family must identify a late hero that will be their namesake and our students are empowered to carefully research their selection.
The EY grade and families' names were announced in a special Naming Ceremony, during a Friday evening Village Time. It was a wonderful celebration of the students' success to come.
Read MoreThursday, March 15th was Patients’ Day in Rwanda. All over the country hospitals and social services spent the day organizing events to lift up and deliver hope to people in need of healing.
Agahozo-Shalom’s Healthy Living Group spent the week leading up to the event gathering donations from among the Village community to be delivered to the local Rwamagana Hospital.
On the day of the event, the Healthy Living group piled into a bus with bags of clothes, laundry detergent, and over 100,000 Rwandan Francs raised from the ASYV community.
When asked what it meant to be at Patients’ Day, student Mukeshimana Ange answered, "It's a pleasure to be here and to help the people who are sick. I'm giving something that they need, soap and clothing. I'm here to see how people react. To help them not be worried, to encourage them." Ange later performed in a sketch along with other Healthy Living Group members. "The sketch is to encourage," she said.
Read MoreHeroes' Day arrived with a bright blue morning, the fresh air greeting the Agahozo Shalom community and our guests. Everyone began the day assembled underneath the mango tree. It was a good place to start the day as the mango tree is the site of one of the most heroic moments in ASYV history, when Village founder Anne Heyman purchased the surrounding land from 96 different land owners in order to build the village.
Read MoreOn opening day for the Enrichment Year students, the ASYV journey begins for more than 120 students who arrive from throughout Rwanda's 30 districts. From near and far, they came to a bus stop in Rwamagana, from where they were shuttled to Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. Some of the students traveling from the Western Provinces took motorbikes to Kigali and spent the night in the city before making the trip. All were met by Village mothers and ASYV staff who were eager to welcome the new students and their guardians. Each was greeted with warm hugs, and arms grasping forearms. One by one the students piled into the Village buses to be transported down through a valley of rice fields and farms and up onto the ridge where ASYV is located. The buses pulled into the gates of ASYV, past the colorful walls painted with the words “If you see far, you will go far,” and stopped at the dining hall. The students and guardians unloaded from their shuttles and began signing in with staff at tables on the balcony of the dining hall.
Read MoreOne of the best parts of being a student at ASYV is the opportunity to apply skills and information you learn in the classroom to the real world. ASYV’s Entrepreneurship program is one of the strongest examples of this.
This week, the Senior 6 (equivalent to high school seniors) students got the chance to go on an Entrepreneurship Field Trip with Technoserve, our partner that created and helped facilitate ASYV’s Entrepreneurship program. This was a special occasion for the kids, not just because it was a chance to leave the Village, but also because it was an opportunity to see how to turn your business ideas into a reality.
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