School Visits and Interviews

Foundation Rwanda (FR) currently sponsors 827 students' education through the completion of secondary school, equivalent to graduating high school in the US education system. Since FR's primary initiative is to ensure all 827 current beneficiaries complete secondary school, it is most beneficial for our research to interview a wide range of FR's student beneficiaries. In Rwanda age does not determine what class level a student is placed, especially after the genocide. So although almost all of FR's beneficiaries are between 17 and 18, we interviewed students enrolled in class levels from Senior 3 (Equivalent to ninth grade in the US) to students who have already completed Senior 6 (equivalent to the high school graduation in the US).

So far, we've completed 10 interviews from student beneficiaries attending various types of schools - public day or boarding school, government-funded, government/Catholic partnership - located across multiple districts where FR provides support. Traveling to visit these different types of schools were interesting in itself, with each village, district, and type of school embodying a unique personality. 

Below is the classroom of a public day school in the rural areas of the Nyamata district. Pictured below is Sam of FR/Survivors Fund (SURF). As he was moving desks together preparing for our interview I snapped this photo of him.

Absolutely in love with this photo taken by my iPhone 5.

Of the 7 beneficiaries at this particular school we only had time to interview one female student in Senior 5, meaning she'll complete secondary school next year. This girl was utterly inspring and incredibly bright. Her dream was to become a journalist, yet expressed how poverty was a challenge to achieving her dream. Although she knew listening to the radio and watching tv each day was incredibly important to her aspiring career, her family could not afford a tv, nor batteries on a regular basis. Other challenges she expressed was having to walk about an hour-and-a-half one-way to and from school each day. By bicycle the trip takes about 30-40 minutes depending on how much strength she had that day. However her family only owns one bike which much be shared by all members, so she doesn't have access to it very often. Once she gets home and completes her chores, such as feeding the cow and washing clothes, she barely has any time to study. If she had enough money she'd request to switch to a boarding school, spend less time walking to school, and more time learning French and English. She also requested a solar lamp, as she did most of her studying at home with a a kerosene lamp, which is quite expensive. 

The Rwandan education system is quite complicated, as we are still trying to grasp our minds around exactly how it works. In certain aspects, the US education system is extremely different from that of Rwanda's, while on the other hand students express challenges that we too, experience here in America.  For example, the fact that all students must take a National Exam at the end of Senior 6, equivalent to our high school graduation is something that (thankfully) we dont do here in Amerca. The marks received from that one final exam determines a student's eligibility to a University, and thus nearly determines their entire future. In Rwanda it is universally expressed that if you don't go to a University, your income earning options are extremely limited. During interviews with students, when asked what they would do if they did not get into a University, students replied they would prefer to repeat Senior 6 and re-take the final year than be forced to find a job without a University education. 

Following the conclusion of our hour-long interview, fellow Capstone Team member Priscilla and I proceeded to pass out donated school supplies to the 7 FR beneficiaries at this school. As we were doing so one class of primary students were dismissed and flocked our car. Since Rwandans are so impressively orderly and disciplined, the students formed one line according to Sam's request. Priscilla went down the line and handed one pencil to each student.

Immediately after we handed one pencil to each of the 20 or so students in line, every single primary classroom was dismissed and we became flocked. Unfortunately we were unable to hand out a gift to each of the 100 or so students, so we had to leave. Word spread fast that we had handed out pencils because kids ran up and surrounded us asking us for a 'crayon' - Makes me want to go back and teach English.