This year at our schools, as in the past, a lot of new construction work has diligently begun, along with a lot of new projects! And what is even most important… with a lot of new students!

We have one really big news item! On the land that lies between our Vocational Trade School and our new Technical Secondary School, we have been renovating three older buildings into dormitories. So now we have become a boarding school!

The students who aren’t from Kivumu, but who come from other parts of Rwanda, are now being accommodated. Word has been out about our school and it has become known as one of most modern and most desired in country. We have around eighty students who come from locations far away from our schools.

It is impossible for them to walk the long distances every day to attend our schools and it would be financially impossible for them to pay for the transport.

Production of new beds

So, what we have done, is to take bricks in hand and get down to work. The students of Padri Vjeko Centre and some outside construction workers have put in many hours of hard labour to ensure that we have accommodation for all of our schools’ students. Eighty of them now live in the three housing units.

Many people might think that it is cheap and easy to build a house here, but the reality is completely different. Building materials in Rwanda are extremely expensive. But no matter what the cost, the benefits from the investment are so much greater, in that it allows us to have home for our students while they study.

First of all, it allows our children the opportunity of receiving an education that everyone deserves. And secondly, the actual construction gives our masonry students very important practice in essential skills. During the rebuilding of these existing structures, as well as constructing some new buildings, our students get a chance to work with skilled masons and to benefit from real life experience in order to learn what they need to know for their futures.

And everything is a work in progress! Aside from the building of our new dormitories, the students, under supervision, have also built temporary showers and toilets. At the same time, they have started to build the sturdier, more permanent structures, which will serve as proper bathing rooms with showers and toilets. And because the village of Muhanga, near the boarding facility, has no water, the students have also dug a channel from the new technical school to the boarding facility.

They will be putting pipes into the channel in order to bring water from the school to boarding compound... (just to remind you... and for those who are new to this website, the recently built Technical Secondary School has a large underground water tank and two above ground tanks for gathering rainwater for school use). This is the water that will supply our boarding students with what they need for their bathing and toilet needs.

New showers

And now our boarding students will also soon begin to have their morning and evening meal on-site because they are currently building a new kitchen on the compound. You see, up until now, the boarding students have been eating in our school kitchen, located a ten minute walk from housing compound.

Construction of a new kitchen

Even more news! As of this year, we have enrolled 467 students at the two schools, so we are planning to build a new volleyball and basketball area because the current one is getting too small for the many students who would like to play these sports.

For our volunteers, each and every project is recognized as being very important. Every project is a step towards helping these young people and helping the villages they come from. Every project means a better future for the village of Kivumu and others that our students come from.

Of course, none of this would be possible without you good people, the generous donors who see a world outside where they can help. And for this we are most grateful.

We would like to use this opportunity to thank a special couple from France, Monsieur Andre and his wife, Madame Mirelle Lappier, who have come here to Kivumu on two separate occasions and who are continuously helping us in so many ways.

As well, I would like to give credit to one of my collages, from the Theology department where I work who had a great idea for his birthday celebration and threw a party, invited his friends, and asked them not to buy anything, but instead to donate their money to Padri Vjeko Centre.

And we are also blessed by the regular donations coming from a humanitarian organisation called “The heart for Africa.” These are people from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina who have helped us a lot. Truly, the goodness of people has no boundaries!

Thank you all! We so are happy and proud that we can celebrate life with these children, and with your continued help, we can give them a better chance for a future that they so deserve!

Translated by Andjelka Fitz
Edited by Valerie Kae Ken