Connecting to Mwana Nshuti

Although it’s thousands of miles away, I’ve been able to get a little bit of a picture of where I’ll be going, which is exciting! Mwana Nshuti is a vocational center that is part of the Friends Peace House, a Christian organization that MCC partners with, that aims to bring peace and reconciliation to Rwanda (founded a few years after the genocide). The students I will have at Mwana Nshuti are aged 14-21, many of whom are girls. They are vulnerable children who are receiving vocational, social and some academic training so they can find a job after the program. They are beginning English learners and they speak Kinyarwanda (the local language in Rwanda) but not French. I was hoping to be able to use my French skills to communicate but instead I will be working extra hard to learn Kinyarwanda to ease the communication barrier!

For a closer look, here's Friends Peace House (FPH): location marked on GoogleMaps J

I also have had communication with Cecile, the secretary at FPH and she suggested some items that I could bring that would be helpful to them. If you have any of these supplies lying around the students and staff at Mwana Nshuti would appreciate them!  

• Sports balls and a pump to inflate them
• English resources: teaching materials, dictionaries (a visual dictionary would be good)
• Math teaching books (primary or secondary)
• French-English dictionary
• Books on HIV/AIDS, health and family planning, and also peace education
• Sewing materials (thread, needles, buttons, metric tape measures, scissors)

I leave you with something that was meaningful and encouraging to me that was written in the Friends Peace House newsletter (by Jonas Ruhangayisha, director of Mwana Nshuti). “It is crucial to consider the youth, who are the future of this country. And helping youth to reintegrate into society, giving them skills and means of making a living and thereby supporting themselves and their families, will do more for long-lasting peace in Rwanda than any of us can ever imagine.” Wow. I can’t wait to arrive in Kigali so I can meet these people who are a part of such great work!

(It’s 50 days till I leave Chicago, though I have training until around Sept 1, I’d guess, so that’s when I’ll actually make it to Kigali)