Agahozo Shalom Youth Village

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Agahozo Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) is a home for orphans of the genocide and AIDS in Rwanda. [1] [2] [3] It was originally set up to educate the orphans of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi. [4]

Contents

History

The village was founded by Anne Heyman, who died on 31 January 2014. [5] [6] Heyman and her husband, Seth Merrin raised $12 million in order to start the organisation. The couple started the organisation to offer a safe community and high school education for the orphans who were at risk. [7] [8] The ASYV was modeled after the Israeli youth villages that were built for Jewish orphans after the Holocaust. [9] [10] The first group of students were 125 in December 2008. By 2012 there were 375 students from ages 15 – 21. [11] As of 2017, there are around 500 students from Rwanda. [12] [13]

Overview

The village provides students a campus with a dining room, high school, health care clinic, homes, workshop spaces, plumbing, internet service, etc. [14] The students study biology, history, math, economics, language, literature, agriculture, music, mechanization, etc. [10] [15] As the educators decided that the Entrepreneurship Course by the Government was theoretical, the ASYV partnered with the Mastercard Foundation and TechnoServ for the STRYDE (Strengthening Rural Youth Development through Enterprise) project for the Entrepreneurship Club. [16] Seth Merrin's company, Liquidnet Holdings, has invested staff time and resources at the village, and $2 million for building the village. [17] [3] The $23 million solar panel project is built in Rwanda on the land owned by the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village. [18] [19]

Process

The leaders of the Rwanda districts gives Agahozo Shalom a list of those teenagers who are in need of attending school. The organisation narrows down the list to 200 and visits the students to decide if the village would be a good fit. [10] The organisation is maintained by a structure based on family. "Families" of students in every grade is split up by gender and they receive a "Mama", a Rwandan educator who lives in the house with them, a "big brother" or "big sister", a guidance counselor who visits weekly, and a foreign "cousin" volunteer who stays for a year. The staffs are referred to as "aunts' or "uncles". [12] [7] The students begin with the Year of Enrichment so that every students have a similar academic base. [20]

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References

  1. ↑ Muhinde, Jejje. "Kwibuka22: Sport 'has helped heal wounds, foster unity'". The New Times Rwanda. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  2. ↑ Martin, Douglas (2014-02-08). "Anne Heyman, Who Rescued Rwandan Orphans, Dies at 52". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  3. 1 2 Sack, Kevin; Fink, Sheri (2015-10-18). "Rwanda Aid Shows Reach and Limits of Clinton Foundation". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  4. ↑ "Penn Student Anea Moore Learns About Healing in Rwanda". news.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  5. ↑ "Anne Heyman's Sudden Death Plunges Rwanda School Into Mourning". The Forward. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  6. ↑ "Rwanda Leader Paul Kagame Gets Jewish Embrace — But What About Human Rights?". The Forward. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  7. 1 2 "Inspiring youth village for orphans generates solar power for nearly 10% of Rwanda" . Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  8. ↑ "Two years in Rwanda". New Jersey Jewish News | NJJN. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  9. ↑ Baddorf, Zack. "Rwanda's Largest Solar Field Also Empowers Orphans". VOA. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  10. 1 2 3 "In Rwandan village, Anne Heyman's legacy lives on" . Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  11. ↑ "Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village helps young Rwandans heal". Christian Science Monitor. 2012-05-22. ISSN   0882-7729 . Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  12. 1 2 "Rwandan Orphans Find Hope in Innovative Youth Village". 2017-11-08. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  13. ↑ "South Sudan teachers seek to rebuild classrooms, country through ASU program". ASU Now: Access, Excellence, Impact. 2015-04-03. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  14. ↑ "The Zionist angel of Rwanda". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  15. ↑ "Rwandan Genocide Survivor, Orphan taking Excellence Abroad". www.newsofrwanda.com. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  16. ↑ "Rwanda hopes high-tech can replace genocide as its defining feature" . Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  17. ↑ "After Anne Heyman's Death, Heartbroken Family Picks Up Torch in Rwanda". The Forward. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  18. ↑ Smith, David (2015-11-23). "How Africa's fastest solar power project is lighting up Rwanda". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  19. ↑ "U2's Bono Tours First Solar Farm Completed Under Power Africa Program". cleantechnica.com. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  20. ↑ "Au Rwanda, un village jeunesse conçu sur le modèle israélien se porte à merveille | The Times of Israël". fr.timesofisrael.com (in French). Retrieved 2018-03-17.
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