Donations

If you would like to make a donation to the Rwanda Appeal you are now able to do this through the following link.  Donations can also be made in cash or cheque direct to the school.

www.justgiving.com/kinambanursery

Amount raised as at Thursday July 17th: £13,000



The Rwanda Action Team (R.A.T) is a group of four Year 11 Dowdales School pupils and the Head teacher of Dowdales School Mrs. E.A. Moffatt. We formed 6 months ago, when myself, and three other GCSE Citizenship pupils were considering what “Active Citizenship” project to undertake as part of our coursework. Active Citizenship could be defined as any action which benefits other people, on a global, national, or local scale. We held a meeting with our head teacher to discuss this and she informed us of an exciting fundraising opportunity.

In January 2005, Meg Fletcher, previously a local primary school Head teacher, undertook a VSO (voluntary service oversees) placement and was sent to Rwanda . She was appalled at the quality of education there. Over a decade after the genocide of 1994, children in the capital city, Kigali , were still without free education. One day when she was taking a morning walk in the city she discovered a hive of activity, with a number of young nursery age children heading towards one particular house. Out of curiosity she followed the children and later found that they were heading to a small room in the house of a man called Evariste. Him and a small number of other local adults had decided to do something about the education problem, by trying to teach the children themselves. 

Meg Fletcher,  with some of the children

Meg was appalled that all they had to work with was a few stones and some sand to write in. No paper, pens, books, toys or any other resources. Nothing of what pupils here have come to expect. She decided that she wanted to help these people and thus the Kinamba Nursery Project was born. She wrote to all her friends around the world, including Mrs Moffatt, our Head, to ask for help. Now in January 2008 the school has opened with three classes, 100 children and plans to open a primary class for those children who have finished nursery. The children also all have medical insurance, school uniforms, desks and benches to work at and one extra meal a day at school.

The school is expanding rapidly and needs to move out of the rented accommodation they are in to a bigger, more permanent base; so that both the existing students and more children can be helped. It would also allow the adult program that the school runs to expand. Currently adults can learn: Basket-making, Hairdressing, English and Basic Literacy. This has been a huge help to the people of the local village. Many of them have been able to find jobs with their new qualifications.

However as stated above the school needs to expand and the cost of moving into the new building that we have managed to secure is going to be around £20,000. We have already raised £10,500 towards this target, but need to raise much more to achieve our final target in time for the next Rwandan School Year (January 2009).

It has been a privilege to work on such an important and inspirational project. Very few people would have this kind of chance, and despite the hard work it entails, we are all very glad we took hold of the opportunity. We would be immensely grateful for any donations of any sort from anyone to help us achieve our target and help the children of Kigali Rwanda .

Please find below some pictures of the school at the moment, they show the great achievements we have managed so far. Please feel free to contact us for more information using the details at the top of the first page. 

Registered Charity No. 1126601