Using Israeli model, Rwanda orphans' school teaches unity post-genocide.
The Times of Israel - 11 hours ago
BY JASON STRAZIUSO April 12, 2014, 5:03 am
As African state marks 20th anniversary of ethnic slaughter,
JDC-assisted youth village for conflict-scarred children thrives
RWAMAGANA, Rwanda (AP) — A school set amid the lush green, rolling
hills of eastern Rwanda, now marking the 20th anniversary of its
genocide, teaches children hope and history on the model of Israeli
schools for Holocaust survivors' children.
Funded by American donors, the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village receives
some of the African country's most "scarred" and vulnerable children.
Most of them don't identify themselves as Hutu or Tutsi — a positive
sign for Rwanda, 20 years after the three-month ethnic killing spree
that, according to the official Rwandan count, left more than a
million people dead.
A decade after the genocide, New York City resident Anne Heyman and
her husband attended a talk about Rwanda. There, they asked what the
biggest problem the country faced was. They were told the number of
orphans the genocide left behind was overwhelming.
There was no hard number, school director Jean Claude Nkulikiyimfura
said, but some estimates put the number of orphans in the low
millions.
Moved by the tragedy, Heyman decided to open a school on the model
used in Israel for orphans of the Holocaust. With help from the
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and corporate donor
Liquidnet Holdings, she purchased land in 2006 to build a school and
dorm-like homes.
Students have lunch in the cafeteria at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth
Village near Rwamagana, in Rwanda, March 2014. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
The school's annual budget is $2 million a year, or about $4,500 per child.
At present, almost all of the school's operating funds come from
donors in America, but it will soon get new funds from a $24 million
solar project with 28,000 solar panels being built on school land by
Gigawatt Global. The project will generate 8.5 megawatts, about 8
percent of Rwanda's electrical capacity, said Chaim Motzen, the
project's coordinator.
The school tries to bring in Rwanda's most vulnerable kids, especially
those affected by the genocide. Most students are orphans,
Nkulikiyimfura said. Others have parents in jail because of their role
in the violence.
"What we try to do is heal their hearts," he said. "These kids come
wounded. They come with heavy scars in their souls."
Though the school's first classes were populated by students orphaned
in the genocide, today's 500 students are orphans because of other
factors, such as HIV/AIDS and because of violence that took place in
neighboring Congo or incursions from Congo after the genocide ended.
Rwandan students joke amongst themselves while waiting to eat lunch
after an exam at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village near Rwamagana, in
Rwanda, March 2014. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Unity is the theme. The school hopes to teach the students that their
position in life will be achieved through merit. Gender won't matter,
and more importantly, said, ethnic identity won't matter.
The teenagers attending the institution, a school with dorms that
creates tight-knit student families, say the ethnic slaughter that
their parents or grandparents were a part of either as victims or
perpetrators won't be repeated. The school director echoes the
sentiment.
"This is the generation now that will in the future make sure that
this kind of politics doesn't exist in the country. We promote unity
and hope," Nkulikiyimfura said of the school's mission.
Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village Director Jean Claude Nkulikiyimfura talks
to a reporter about the history and role of the school, March 2014.
(AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
"One of the major debates is that better education would help the kids
not to think, 'Yes, I'm a Hutu. I'm a Tutsi.' Good education would
promote the idea of how do you develop yourself, how do you develop
your community, instead of this division that was created mostly by
their parents," he added.
Heyman died earlier this year at age 52 after a horse-riding accident.
Student Coralie Keza, 20, said Heyman made a big impact on her.
"The thing I liked about this place is it changed me, having good
people around you," she said after eating lunch of rice, potatoes and
cucumbers at the school cafeteria, a building boasting a colorful
mural depicting people walking on a red-dirt road, some hand-in-hand,
and other happy people. "Pushing you to do good things, being
supportive of your breakdowns. Before coming here I was someone else,
not this person. I felt hopeless. I had no desire of living."
She added: "Kids from here will do good things in life and I really
wanted her to see that."
Sharon Kalisa's favorite subject is history, especially genocide
studies. The 17-year-old said she wants to know how and why the
genocide happened. Both of her mother's parents were killed in the 100
days of violence. Kalisa says she sees similarities between the
Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, most notably the undercurrents of
poverty and unequal rights.

Student Sharon Kalisa, 17, whose favorite subject is history and
particularly genocide studies, sits in her bedroom at the
Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Nkulikiyimfura, a graduate of the University of Arkansas, is proud of
the school's graduation record. The first year of graduates, in 2012,
saw 90 percent of the class go on to university, college or technical
schools. About a dozen are studying abroad. Four students from the
school attend classes at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Keza
hopes to join them.
While the students at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village represent just
a small section of Rwandan youth, Rwandan society overall hesitates to
talk about the Hutu-Tutsi divide, following a directive from the
Tutsi-led government that was issued to squelch tribal animosities.
The students at this school give the impression that their generation
may move past old ethnic distinctions and divides.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.
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