PROGRESS TO DATE
* The initial class of 11 students from the Centre Memorial de Gisimba orphanage supported by ORI finishes their first year of study at some of the best universities in Rwanda in December 2005.
* In September 2005, ORI funded 14 more talented students from the Centre Memorial de Gisimba and the Village de la Paix Orphanage to begin their university educations. As more funding becomes available, ORI is expanding rapidly. For the 2006 academic year, ORI has committed to funding an additional 24 students to pursue college degrees.
* Working with Partners In Health, ORI is supporting the education of 58 primary and secondary school students in the rural eastern region of the country. These students are the children of people living with HIV/AIDS who receive medical care from Partners In Health. While the adults are being treated for their HIV infections, many of them have trouble supporting their families. By providing scholarship help to their children, ORI gives these families hope for the future.
* ORI has worked with all of the students we support to identify challenges and address them quickly and effectively to ensure that they have what they need to flourish. This has included, for example, providing access to libraries and purchasing additional textbooks and materials when necessary. In the near future, we hope establish a system for providing tutoring to students who experience academic difficulties.
HEALTH CARE
Having grown up without proper medical care, many of the children and young adults we support face a heightened risk of disease. ORI is planning a comprehensive survey of healthcare needs during 2006, but has already begun to address the most common and significant medical problems:
* In every orphanage we support, ORI currently helps to ensure that children at risk for HIV/AIDS obtain testing and proper care and treatment. Through ORI-sponsored testing, a number of children have been diagnosed as HIV-positive. In cooperation with doctors at Kigali Central Hospital who have volunteered their own time and efforts, ORI staff members have succeeded in enrolling these HIV+ children in treatment programs that promise to extend their lives indefinitely.
* ORI has recently begun to help its partners tackle the threat posed by malaria. Malaria not only interferes with the children's education, but can be potentially deadly if untreated. By installing insecticide-treated bed nets for every single child at both the Centre Memorial de Gisimba and the Village de la Paix, ORI has helped these orphanages protect their children from this deadly disease.
* A number of the university students we support suffer from chronic health problems. ORI addresses these issues on a case-by-case basis and tries to ensure that each student has access to high-quality care.
* ORI is exploring a partnership with Unite for Sight, a US-based nonprofit that sends volunteer teams to developing countries to diagnose and treat eyesight problems. A UFS team would be able to provide eyeglasses to every single ORI-supported student with impaired vision, and would also train locals to provide ongoing eye care for the future.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Where appropriate, ORI provides targeted funding to upgrade an orphanage's buildings, grounds or utilities. Progress to date has included the following projects:
* With ORI support, the Village de la Paix orphanage in Kigali has been able to install both running water and electricity. These basic amenities have had an instant impact on the lives of the more than 70 children who currently live at the orphanage.
* Thanks to a generous in-kind donation, ORI has delivered a shipment of computers to Kigali and is setting up computer laboratories at its partner orphanages there. As Rwanda develops, computer skills are quickly becoming among the most important factors in finding employment after graduation. By providing orphanages with computers and access to the Internet, ORI will make it possible for students to develop the skills they need to compete for jobs as well as to learn about the world beyond Rwanda's borders.
* ORI is currently working with its partner orphanages to purchase and install electrical generators. Due to frequent power outages, much of Kigali is without electricity every evening. To ensure that the students we support can study without interference, reliable electricity is indispensable.
STRATEGY
Responding to the priorities our local partners have expressed, our strategy flows directly from our mission. While ORI's partners are usually able to provide for most essential childhood needs, they lack funds to enable their young people to pursue higher education. Even those who graduate from high school are unable, lacking family connections, to compete in the job market. With no means of providing for themselves, they remain dependent on outside support. Consequently, many orphans of the genocide and epidemic disease have reached their mid-twenties, yet continue to live in an orphanage.
ORI responds directly to this problem by helping students pursue a university education. Our holistic package of support -- covering tuition, housing, nutrition, transportation, healthcare, books and supplies -- enables university students to live outside orphanages and to manage their own finances. This transitional experience is critical as orphans become self-sufficient and begin to rejoin their communities. Despite growing up without a family or any significant resources, the students we support have overcome trauma to succeed in primary and secondary school and display tremendous enthusiasm for continuing that success at the university level
ORI also works to ensure that younger children have everything they need to excel as they work toward university, including:
* Access to healthcare, including prevention and treatment for HIV/AIDS and malaria.
* A productive learning environment, with reliable electricity, clean drinking water, access to computers, and other resources.
* Stopgap support to ensure a continuous educational experience when other donors are temporarily unable to fund primary and secondary school fees.
VISION
ORI's basic model is one of direct support to individuals. Ultimately, however, ORI hopes to effect change on a systemic level. In a country as small and poor as Rwanda, a few hundred orphans graduating from university can transform the pool of intellectual capital and drive economic growth. Fewer than 1 in 200 adults in Rwanda have a college degree, and Rwanda's universities together graduate only a few thousand students each year, most of them male and wealthy. The disadvantaged students who do make it to university often must choose their field of study based on what they can afford. For instance, the high cost of nursing school has led to a dire shortage of highly trained nurses in Rwanda, crippling the country's ability to respond to the AIDS epidemic. By enabling a growing cadre of underprivileged orphans -- both female and male -- to join the ranks of Rwanda's intellectual elite, ORI will have a significant and positive impact on Rwanda's future.
“It is these ordinary people we must urge to be in the forefront in ensuring that every child is given a chance of going to school, of developing his human potential, because the children will respond to us in accordance with how we nurture them.”
—Nelson Mandela
RECENT PROGRESS – HIGHLIGHTS
* Expanded Support: ORI recently selected its third class of university scholarship recipients. This talented class of 23 students brings the total number of ORI-supported university students to 52. ORI-sponsored students now study a wide range of subjects, from law to dentistry, at nine different universities in Rwanda. Each year, ORI attracts more applicants and the selection process becomes more competitive. This class is our most qualified yet.
* New Partnerships: As ORI expands its presence across Rwanda it has also added two new partners. The first, the Fred Nkunda Orphanage is among the best-run orphanages in Rwanda. The second, the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) is a pan-African NGO that runs a highly regarded girls’ secondary school in Kigali and administers a nationwide high school scholarship program for girls. Both of these new partners were involved in selecting this year’s scholarship class.
* Business Opportunities: ORI believes strongly that the students we support should continue learning outside of school. We are currently researching the market opportunity for a bakery that would employ ORI-supported students and produce high-end specialty baked goods for wealthy institutional, international and local clients. Under ORI supervision, a group of scholarship recipients have been helping to develop the business plan for this project.
* Health Clinic: ORI has recently established a health clinic to provide primary care to over 200 ORI-supported university students and young children living at the Gisimba Memorial Center orphanage. Clinic staff will screen and treat common illnesses, coordinate access to secondary and tertiary care, and work with ORI staff to conduct health education programs. Education programs will include sexual and reproductive health, hygiene and family planning.
* Fundraising: On September 27, 2007, ORI hosted a fundraising event at the PM lounge in New York City. Guest speakers Paul Farmer and Josh Ruxin spoke enthusiastically to a crowd of over 300 ORI supporters. Dr. Farmer described the ORI philosophy as the beginning of a movement towards the right to university education for those who need it, not only for those who can afford it.
* Unite for Sight: ORI recently partnered with Unite for Sight-Rwanda to conduct an eye care screening at Gisimba Memorial Center. Over the course of two days, Unite for Sight volunteers were able to screen university scholarship recipients and residents of the orphanage. For many students, this was their first-ever eye exam. ORI is currently in the process of coordinating follow-up consultations and providing glasses for students in need.
Visit the website: ORPHANS OF RWANDA