ARC has an annual ideas competition we call the Changemakers Award, when we ask our 2,500 team members around the world – ‘what would you do to make the people you serve feel joyful, valued and powerful?’ A couple of years ago, our Partnerships Officer in Rwanda - Jacques Rumanyika - submitted an idea to create a green park space in Nyabiheke Refugee Camp. Jacques wanted a lush communal space, somewhere beautiful that residents could go to rest, relax and recenter. So, while we had some labor provided by our U.S. visitors – including a 20-year Minneapolis Parks veteran – we decided to get started on Jacques’ brilliant idea. We selected a plot of land near the center of Nyabiheke and got right to work. Before we could get started with anything, we needed to prepare the spot. That meant some trash collection was in order. Neighbors who lived nearby the spot joined our visitors, donning work gloves and filling garbage bags with bits of paper and plastic that had accumulated over … [Read more...] about Nyabiheke’s Central Park

Nyabiheke Camp has a new computer lab, funded by a group of Changemakers who had visited the camp a couple of years before. And, we’ve been working on a partnership with Rwanda’s kLab – a tech hub and incubator in Kigali – to start a coding school in the lab for Nyabiheke youth. So, while we still had our visitors from the U.S. in Nyabiheke, we thought we should get them together with Nyabiheke young people to teach some basic coding and computer skills. kLab Managing Director Aphrodice Mutangana joined us to lead a simple coding activity using the Scratch coding language. But when he was about to start he noticed there was not a single young woman present. “I’m not starting this lesson until there are young women in this room.” Aphrodice sent the students out to gather their sisters, female neighbors and friends who were interested in learning to code. Once both young men and women were represented, Aphrodice got started. Our U.S. visitors – computer scientists and … [Read more...] about Scratch That Itch

Yesterday, we planted a new swingset at the Early Childhood Development Center in Nyabiheke Refugee Camp. But we noticed that the school could really use a few more items. Our Site Manager Victor told us that the ECD was set up several years ago with early childhood development learning materials. But those materials had never been renewed. Students were still working with the same items, and there was no money to replace the supplies that had been used up or broken. It was easy to see how we could start helping – and hard to stop ourselves at our $500 daily budget! ECD Centers often have different stations where kids can work on hands-on activities and developing particular skills. For the arts area, we had painter’s easels built and bought paints, markers and large rolls of paper to last awhile. For the blocks area, we brought both wooden and plastic blocks, and we purchased a few abacuses for the math and manipulatives area. We brought Play-doh, animal and alphabet … [Read more...] about Seeds of Learning

The early childhood development center in Nyabiheke introduces 4-6 year olds to school. 800 refugee children move through the small school each and every day. Morning students and afternooners cycle through the six classrooms, guided through their activities by teachers who also live in Nyabiheke. But other than their schoolrooms and the bathrooms, there’s not much else for the kids to do. “During recess and breaks, there’s nothing to occupy the pupils,” said Betty, whose organization operates the center. “They would love to have a balancoire.” A balancoire is the French word for swing – it seemed like a doable thing that would really make a big difference to the little ones at the ECD center. So, we checked in with our welder in Nyabiheke and found that a four-seat metal swing, fully installed, would be right on our $500 budget. We placed the order and returned to the ECD when it was delivered a few days later. The kids were so excited about this new toy for them all … [Read more...] about It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing

Yesterday we were helping our Community Activists (or CAs) in Nyabiheke build a kitchen where they can prepare food for their new canteen. But we noticed the inside of their canteen needed some help, too. “We rely on our CAs,” Victor, our Nyabiheke Site Manager, told us. “They do so much for the community. I’ve been wanting to do something nice for them for a long time.” The CA Canteen was actually already open for business. But without a kitchen and a lot of the basics, they had only sodas, bottled water, and a few small bites for sale. They were going to need a lot more things to make their dream of a little restaurant happen. So we brought them the things that could get them started. Our friends from the U.S. arrived at the canteen with arms full – a propane cookstove along with a large propane tank, thermoses for hot tea, a mortar and pestle, silverware, plates, glasses, aprons. And of course, food – we brought sugar, flour and oil enough for the CAs to get their … [Read more...] about Thermoses, Cookstoves and Plates – OH MY!

Community Activists make our programs in Nyabiheke refugee camp possible. These are residents of the camp, who volunteer their time to help when our team there needs a few extra hands – which is pretty often. … [Read more...] about Warm Hearts, Warm Meals

Weddings are one of the biggest events that happen in Nyabiheke Refugee Camp. It’s a huge moment for the bride and groom, of course – but it’s also an important opportunity for the community to get together and celebrate. A wedding in a refugee camp is not so different than a wedding anywhere. The happy couple wants what many pairs tying the knot do – a magical day with all their friends and family surrounding them as they commit themselves to one another. “There’s nowhere to sit,” Victor, our Site Manager in Nyabiheke told us. “Elders, neighbors and members of the community come to celebrate the couple, but they all have to stand.” It was easy to see how we could make a difference here. The first thing we did was buy 50 chairs the community could store at the Community Hall and put in action any time a wedding is held. We also got two larger armchairs complete with white slipcovers, a special spot for the happy couple to rest during the ceremony. Victor also told us that … [Read more...] about Happily Ever After

The very last activity we had planned for the library makeover was a reading hour and grand opening. Sometimes Changemakers 365 and doing the doable doesn’t cost a penny – and this was one of those moments. We wanted to introduce the community to the new library space and get everyone excited about the new resources that were available. We also thought it would be a great opportunity to do some one-on-one reading and playing with kids in Nyabiheke – and give them some one-on-one time with adults that they might not otherwise get. Luckily we had a group of visitors from the U.S. there to do just that. We opened up the library doors and kids, teens and adults came streaming in to check out the murals, look through the selection of books and play with some of the toys and art materials. “The new library is really great,” said Victor, ARC’s Site Manager for Nyabiheke. “I hope we can soon offer more programs and community support here. This is a good beginning.” Our U.S. … [Read more...] about Reading Hour

The Library in Nyabiheke now has all the things you’d think a library needs – books, furniture, some color to spark the imagination. “We can make this a space for the kids to explore and create,” said Jacques, our Partnerships Officer. Without many spots in the camp for kids to learn and explore on their own, we wanted to do a little extra with the library. And add some small touches that would allow children to express themselves and interact with each other. That included an abacus or two, a train set, puzzles, toys and games. We also bought a range of art materials for the library…Easels, paints and smocks… chalk for the veranda outside…crayons, markers, coloring books and lots and lots of paper. The kids loved the materials and got started creating right away. But teenagers and young adults came in and started creating, too. The papers pulled across the library tables were soon crowded with drawings and doodles. And kids were pulling out pages they colored to take … [Read more...] about A Living Space

A good library is never just a warehouse for books, it’s a community spot where learning, engagement and interaction with new ideas happens – at all ages. So, with the kids’ corner of the library really shaping up, we turned our attention today to some older learners in Nyabiheke. All of the school kids in Nyabiheke are learning English as a part of their curriculum. But for adults, there’s no formal mechanism for them to learn and practice English – a skill some of them will really need if they are ever resettled. That’s where Innocent stepped in. Innocent was an English teacher in Congo before coming to Nyabiheke. And for the last couple of years he has been teaching a weekly English class for any adults who want to learn. His only teaching materials – a beat-up old blackboard. Innocent is doing a real service for his community. The least we could do was get him the things he needed to properly teach his class, to recognize the professional he is. We had a new … [Read more...] about A Learning Hub