Giving Project

The Penn State Child Care Center at Hort Woods chose the Urukundo Children's Home and Learning Center as their Global Giving Project for 2012!!

Families and teachers donated to help furnish the new primary school. Almost $400 was collected, enough to buy 6 children's desks and chairs, a bookshelf and teacher supplies.

The winner of the drawing for the Rwandan basket was Nest of Wonder teacher, Cassie Massaker. She shared, "I like the idea of a partnership with classes at each school as it is never too early to learn about other countries and appreciate what we have. I realized some of the children knew more about Rwanda than I did. They inspired me to learn what THEY had to share. And now with Grace Hakizimana, a Rwandan teacher at our school sharing her stories, it brings more life into the classroom partnership. She makes it all more real."

As Cassie admired her basket she asked me to tell her about it. Before I did she mentioned she was getting married this summer. I shared that it was appropriate that she was the winner as it is usually given to a couple when they get married. It represents Sharing, Saving and Solidarity. Sharing...the basket is given as a wedding gift filled with rice or beans. Saving...as the couple use the beans and rice, they refill it throughout their life. Solidarity...they are a part of their community.

Thank you Hort Woods for your generosity!!!!

Photos:
*Linda Reichert, Center Director
*Rwanda Display for parents and children
*Winner Cassie Massaker
*New desks and bookshelves

Partnerships

I asked Linda Duerr, Director of Programming at the Penn State Child Care Center at Hort Woods, to share about our classroom to classroom partnership.

"The idea for the partnership between Rwanda and Hort Woods emerged almost as if it was planned and yet, it was quite natural and spontaneous. Over a year ago, Carol Falke contacted me about the possibility of having our preschool children and teachers connect with preschool children and teachers in Rwanda.

Helping very young children have a global perspective and come to an understanding of the diversity of our world is a challenge. They are only just beginning to understand the world outside their own homes after all. In order to make this type of social studies curriculum meaningful it is necessary to consider how to present it to children in a developmentally appropriate manner.

I put the idea to one of our master teachers, Nina Fellin, and she took the ball and ran with it. Meaningful and rich curriculum has emerged with her guidance and support. We also have a teacher from Rwanda in our school and are able to learn about Rwanda in a very authentic way by way of her sharing her culture with us. We have exchanged images, drawings, artifacts and words to help us all understand the world of our friends in a small country so far away. We have formed a global connection between our two learning communities.

Photos:
*Grace Hakizimana, a teacher from Rwanda sharing her culture
*Linda Duerr and Nina Fellin at the preschool
*Nina's class learning about Rwanda

Kids to Kids

Partnerships continue with schools and children. Caroline, an 8 year old, was one of the "Kids in Mission" team members at St. Paul's United Methodist Church that collected over 300 pairs of flip flops and crocs for Rwanda. She and her older sister Emma also sponsored books for Rwanda and wrote a special message inside them. As third graders, children studied Africa. Caroline told her teacher, Linda Margusity, that she knew about Rwanda and the next thing I knew I was asked to speak to over 50 children in 3rd grade at Mt. Nittany Elementary School, State College, PA. A new partnership was formed with two teachers, Linda Margusity and Tia Burget and their students.

I shared stories and photos about the geography, culture, poverty, children, schools and why I was going to Rwanda. The children were curious, attentive and asked brilliant questions. I also shared art pieces......baskets, musical instruments, fabric and dung art that received a few "ews".

These two classes will be collecting buttons and saving them in 2 Rwandan baskets. Several 3rd graders will work with their teachers to prepare lesson plans on how to use buttons in teaching. These lesson plans will be given as a gift to the teachers and children in Rwanda. They will also work on a small art project using the buttons that I will present to one of the classes. The class in Rwanda will then create an art project for me to bring back and share. Art will be exchanged across the world.

I look forward to sharing about a school writing project that is in the works.

Photos:
*Presentation on Rwanda
*Not too sure about Dung Art
*Sisters, Emma, Caroline on the right. Children can lead the way!!!!

A Tale of Two Baskets

Building partnerships is a wonderful aspect of the mission in Rwanda. Bringing children together and teachers together. For over a year, The Child Care Center at Hort Woods on the Penn State campus has been "Picture Pals" with a class at the Cyakabiri Preschool in Rwanda. They have shared drawings and stories about themselves as well as compared what is the same and what is different in their classrooms.

Most recently they are comparing baskets that are unique to their geographic regions. Each are hand-made and have stories to share. The Rwanda basket, given at weddings filled with beans or rice represents Sharing, Saving and Solidarity. The apple basket, made by a local artisan in Pennsylvania, is made of maple and ash. The children visited trees on the campus to have their photos taken and picked leaves to press then sent to Rwanda with me. Booklets were made using photographs to show how each of the baskets were made.

In August I took 7 Rwandan preschool teachers and 9 teens from Urukundo to see this demonstration by a woman basket maker. For many it was the first time they had seen someone in their own country make the baskets. Learning continues to open new horizons across the world.

Conversations and observations will continue as children compare these baskets. What they are used for, trees and fruit in each country and stories of those that make the baskets.

What is next? Handmade musical instruments.

New Primary School

Thank you for being patient while I took a break from my Blog. It has been a busy fall as I was making many new connections with schools, local organizations, individuals and churches. Did I say I was "retired"? Now I am writing again to share with you all the blessings. Blogs that will lead up to my next trip in March 2013.

When our team left Rwanda in September, the new primary school was still in the early stages of construction with walls going up. Our team committed to sponsoring one of the 3 classrooms and have almost reached our goal. Now it is nearing completion for the January start of school.

Desks and chairs for the 80 students are being made in Rwanda. I thank the many groups and individuals that are stepping up to help purchase these as well as bookcases and storage cabinets. Soon these desks will be full of excited, smiling children, ready to learn.

Who are these children? The recent graduates, 6 year olds from the Cyakabiri Preschool. Children that have been in school for a year because many in the US have supported Mama Arlene's vision for education. Luki and Claude, from the Urukundo Children's Home, are best friends and ready to meet new educational challenges.

Photos of the first day of school in mid-January will be posted! So check back!

My next blog will feature school and classroom to classroom partnerships called "picture pals".

Starting Again

The same team from North Carolina met with another young boy, also 14 years old. There is no one in his family except a cousin who is also 14. They have been on their own for several years.

With ZOE he started a charcoal business, gathering wood and burning it. With a small grant he actually paid adults to work for him. The night before he was going to pack it in bags and take it to sell all the charcoal was stolen. You see how vulnerable children are.

But that did not stop he and his cousin who were living in a small building with other individuals. They had a mat on the floor with a tarp closing off their living space 8x8. But it was inside.

Determined they became a part of a banana juice business. He and others harvest the bananas and working with a large wooden trough they press and kneed the pulp. He then filters it and sells it.

Because it is not safe for several of these young children, a 4 room building is being constructed for them to call home. When he was sick others in ZOE pooled the little money they had so he could go to the clinic. They are family and work together to bring a new life to each other.

14 year old

There are many stories about the ZOE Orphan Empowerment program that I will continue to share them. Five members of our ZOE team from a church in North Carolina are also supporting a working group called Hope. We visited a 14 year old boy and his 2 younger brothers.

Their mother died just after the birth of their youngest brother. The two youngest went to live with a woman nearby leaving him on his own at 7 years old. When the boys got older they went to live with the oldest who at that time was 11.

Now with ZOE they are learning about healthy living. They share a bed off the floor and have containers for their beans. They have one pig and one goat and hope to get a cow. This is the first time they have beans to eat.

They thank ZOE for bringing them into the community of other orphans so they are not alone. He plans to have a business once he is trained. They have been on the program for just 3 months.

Hope now....where there was no hope!!!