Ed. note: Last week Celeste was able to train some teachers at the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) centre in Kigali, Rwanda where they have developed a pre-school and primary school. She sends the following report:
The East African YWAM leaders, Mary and Method Kamanzi, have been friends for many years. We met them in Kenya and they later assisted the YWAM base in Muizenberg, South Africa, where Gerrit was the campus director.
Now living in their homeland, Rwanda, they lead an exciting and very effective ministry which includes: discipleship classes; a vocational school where street children get trained; a ministry to AIDS victims; and a K-8 school for less privileged children from the area. They have taken a number of genocide survivors into their home and are doing a phenomenal work all over East Africa.
Gerrit reconnected with them a year ago and offered to help raise funds for an expansion of their “widow and orphan” property (Village of Hope).
The Arise and Shine School begun by Mary Kamanzi has a dynamic principal in Christine Nyirambarushimana. The students excel in the district and national exams and they are proof that all students can succeed, despite their backgrounds. After spending time in the classroom, Celeste was asked to lead an afternoon workshop for the teachers in effective teaching strategies, scaffolding lessons and encouraging them in the many challenges they face on a daily basis. The biggest one presently is the lack of resources, as well as the challenge for the mostly non-English speaking teachers, to provide an excellent education to the students in the newly mandated official English language. (Until very recently the official language for education was French).
They were so enthusiastic to learn some techniques and eager to apply classroom management styles that were very new to them. Celeste encouraged them not to focus only on teaching for the sake of performing in tests, but to serve the “whole” child. They are facing enormous obstacles as the students do not speak English at home, yet have to become fully English speaking and to even take tests in English in a relatively short period of time.
As Celeste’s school district in Colorado Springs face similar linguistic challenges, she could share some of her experiences and be available for the many questions afterwards.
The school is in desperate need of supplies. Should you want to contribute to this need, please consider a financial donation to this very worthy cause, by clicking on the arrow below and scrolling down to the bottom of the page.
Well done, Celeste, and thank you for empowering these eager teachers to become better communicators. Despite these children’s past experiences, God will use their teachers to help them become what Rwanda needs to successfully enter a global economy.