Thanks to all of you who have selflessly been helping us during the past year, I can happily say that an exceptionally successful year is now behind us. We managed to increase the number of children and youth at Padri Vjeko Centre and we were able to continue with our construction projects.

Padri Vjeko Centre now has about 700 children and youth to care for who attend our educational institutions – Kindergarten, Primary School (which we have only recently started), or one of our two Secondary Schools – the Technical Secondary School or our Vocational Secondary School. Thanks to all of you, an education and one warm meal every day have been provided to our students.

At the beginning of the year, we started with a new project – Friends of Padri Vjeko Centre. Anyone who donates 750 Kuna / 100 Euros / 200 KM annually through the humanitarian organization “A Heart for Africa” (Srce za Afriku) can become a Friend of Padri Vjeko Centre. With that amount the donor helps us to cover part of the expense of running the secondary school, as well as providing a daily warm meal for one student in Padri Vjeko Centre.

It is important to note that Friends of Padri Vjeko Centre can donate monthly, rather than paying once yearly. You are welcome to choose whichever payment plan you wish. And you are not obliged to donate every year if your circumstances change. Every year you can decide whether or not you want to continue being a Friend of Padri Vjeko Centre. But be sure to follow our website to see all that we are doing with your contribution! You can become a Friend of Padri Vjeko Centre at anytime during the year. Letters are sent every four months and no matter when you become a Friend of Padri Vjeko Center, and you will surely get these letters.

This model has proven to be better than one with the usual sponsorship program, because it does not oblige anyone to pay longer than one year, rather, only for as long as they are able to do so. Every school year in our Secondary school education costs 250 to 350 Euro per student. The classic model of sponsorship often requires a long lasting commitment of making a set amount of contribution each year for a set amount of years. At Padri Vjeko Centre we understand that sometimes donors, for various reasons, are no longer able to donate to their cause. Because of this Friends of Padri Vjeko Centre has introduces this more acceptable model to our supporters.

During the school year, Friends of Padri Vjeko Centre receive not only letters containing news from our mission but also letters from the students themselves, telling about their experiences in our school.

If you still aren’t a Friend of Padri Vjeko Centre, and you want to become one, feel free to contact us via our e-mail address This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . And if you cannot pay an amount of 100 Euros yearly, please know that any other donation, in any amount, would also help us a lot. To us, every help, no matter the amount, is as big as a house!

At Padri Vjeko Centre we have not only increased the number of children in our schools, but we have also started building two students dormitories – one for the girls and one for the boys. These dormitories house the students who come from places that are long distances. The parents of these students cannot afford the cost to travel to school every day. Many gifted students, who go to our school, have to walk as much as ten kilometers in order to attend classes. This is not only exhausting for the students, but also very dangerous, because classes start at 7:30 a.m. and last till 5 p.m., so many of them have to walk in the dark to reach home. You see, in Rwanda dawns begins at 6 a.m. and it gets dark around 6 p.m. throughout the entire year.

The foundation for both of our dormitories has been completed and we are in the midst of construction for the girls’ dormitory. The buildings of both dormitories are adjacent, with a wall between. Both dormitories will be enclosed with a courtyard in the middle for leisurely activities. Each dorm will have six large spacious rooms, similar to classrooms, in which we will have bunk beds, made by our welding section of Padri Vjeko Centre. Of course, there are bathing rooms and toilets. We will be able to accommodate about 240 students in each student dormitory. So this will be a wonderful addition to Padri Vjeko Centre!

We are also very happy because we have managed to find funding to buy a minibus for the purposes of Padri Vjeko Center. The minibus has a seating capacity of 29 and it will be used do drive our students on school excursions. Because this is an extremely poor area, many children from Rwanda have never, ever seen anything other than their own village. For example, even though the capital city of Kigali is just 45 kilometers away, more than 90 percent of the children in Kivumu have never seen it. Rwanda has beautiful national parks. Many tourists come here from all over the world to see the wild animals like gorillas, elephants, giraffes, zebras etc. Many citizens of Kivumu, even the adults, have never in their lives gotten such a chance. Well, we are now going to change that. This will also be great motivation for our students to work hard, because the excursions are going to be prizes for them for their good work, great results and good grades.

We also managed to obtain new laptops for our Computer Science classrooms, and new sewing machines for our Tailoring department, equipment that is so important for our practical lessons.

We also managed to complete a big project of covering one part of our schoolyard with a roof. The lower schoolyard inside our Technical Secondary School is now fully covered with a roof, which spreads like an umbrella over the whole school complex. This way we can have assembly every morning, ending with a prayer, before classes... even if it rains. And our students can also use the courtyard for sports activities after classes.

What makes us especially happy is the fact that more than 90 percent of the young people who finish their education in our school find a job and live a better life today. Up to now we have graduated about 2000 young people from Padri Vjeko Centre!

During the year 2018 I was invited to visit a number of places and cities in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina where we promoted the book “Fra Vjeko Ćurić, the Saint of our Time” written by Željko Garmaz. The entire sales revenue from the book is being used for our projects. I am glad to finally have met many of you face to face and that we were able to show you something of life in Kivumu and the work we do at Padri Vjeko Centre, with the help of the short movie produced by Dino Senčars.

We witness that outstretched hands towards the poor can accomplish many great things. Thank you for stretching your arms out together with us! Helping others is the best and most noble thing a human being can do!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Please keep following us into the New Year 2019 for which I wish you all blessings, health, love, good fortune and success!

Translated by: Martina Pucelj
Edited by: Valerie Kae Ken