Our vocational school has been very active this past year. When we look back, we can certainly say that together we accomplished a great number of useful projects, not only for our students, but also for our entire Kivumu community. With every new day we make more progress and improve the ordinary folk's quality of life. Some projects are big, some are a bit smaller but nonetheless equally important. Every day something new is done, and I am very pleased to see that people in the village are grateful for all that we've been doing for them.

Over the years so many projects have been completed with the help of donors, volunteers and friends from all over the world.

With the first day of the calendar year here in Rwanda also begins the new school year. This year 371 students enrolled in our vocational school – 287 boys and 84 girls.

In the first year of the tailoring section we have 45 girls, and in the second year we have 23 girls and two boys. The first year of carpentry has 32 boys and two girls, and in the second year we have 24 boys and one girl. The future builders are the most numerous. In the first year we have 84 boys and three girls, and in the second year we have 53 boys. The welding section has 58 boys and one girl, the plumbing section has 7 boys a 2 girls, and the electricity section has 27 boys and 7 girls.

Our students have become well known throughout the country for their quality of knowledge and skill, and a number of them have even found employment in other schools, working as practical work teachers, passing their knowledge and experience on to others.

The students of the building section constructed six classrooms plus the toilets for our primary school, and the carpentry section made desks and chairs for the new classrooms. Afterwards our students - all by themselves - built a playground for the children in the primary school. But that's not all! A waterworks project had also been designed and brought to completion by our plumbing section students. I'm proud to be able to say that our students make progress with every day and leave our school with exceptionally solid knowledge. Even our teachers are learning! They had the opportunity to take the national exams and improve their knowledge even more.

Also, we mustn't forget to mention the biogas project in our Padri Vjeko Vocational Training Center, the new and improved school uniforms, and the fact that we closed our schoolyard with a new gate painted in cheerful colours by Petra Lidija Ševeljević. The students of various courses in our school all worked together to paint the doors and windows of our classrooms.

Three years ago we received a container from Canada, and this year we modified it, so today it is made up of rooms where a group of physically challenged persons can work, creating knitted garments for sale to the public. We made it possible for them as to come onto the school property without any difficulties.

This year as well, our tailoring students received a sewing and production course from Ivo Mlakić from Bosnia and Herzegovina and our volunteer Valerie from Canada arrived to design the new school uniforms. Also this year, as in previous years, we organized courses for our teachers in English and Math, as well as practical exercises for welders, plumbers and electricians in cooperation with our numerous volunteers.

And, given that every year we get more and more volunteers, we renovated the volunteers' house and made it more pleasant for living. We also improved the school administration – all student data was entered into to a new computer database.

In cooperation with a volunteer from Croatia, Domagoj Skledar, we organized a computer course for all the villagers, in order to help them learn how to use computers and therefore find employment more easily.

We have expanded the school garden, and now get more of our food from our hands' labour, which enables us to feed our students at a lesser expense. The primary schoolchildren also got new uniforms, sewn by students in the tailoring division of our vocational school.

Our students now receive state diplomas because the school has been recognized by the Rwandan government, which is a tremendous success because our diplomas will be recognized throughout the country.

By far, the biggest project has been the construction of the new secondary school. The first phase has been completed. We have built an 800 square meter building, with 11 classrooms, toilets and two huge water tanks.

The students of our vocational school helped a great deal in this exciting project. The builders worked every day to construct building, the water tanks, paving the schoolyard and other construction works. The carpenters made all the furniture for the new school – desks, chairs, tables and cupboards.

Considering that several years ago English replaced French as the second official language of Rwanda, people need to learn English as quickly as possible. Since regular lessons in our new school begin next year in January, we have decided to organize English language courses in our school in the meantime, all in cooperation with volunteers from Canada and Germany.

As I've already said in the beginning, with every new day our community takes another step forward; with every new day we do something more and we are extremely happy to receive the help of great people from all around the world!

Translated by Branimir Mlakić
Edited by Valerie Kae Ken

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