I was born into a vulnerable family. Having struggled immensely to get an education and being supported by donors to complete my college education at Kepler Kigali, I decided to become a champion for vulnerable children. I want to block what I personally went through from happening to future generations.
Rwanda is a landlocked and low-income country in East Africa. Having gone through the tragedy of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, the country has been rebuilding across various areas, aspiring to become a middle-income country by 2035, and a high-income country by 2050. However, achieving this requires tremendous effort, with education taking the lead. This is because skills create job opportunities, raise income, and improve standards of living.
Primary education in Rwanda is free for public schools and expensive for private ones. Obviously, private schools are always on top! They have smaller enrollments, well paid and motivated teachers, smarter organizational structures, and an environment that embraces discipline, a key to social and intellectual development. Since this conducive environment might be hard to embrace in public schools, it makes children in those schools, especially in disadvantaged areas, obtain a low-quality education.
As a response to this reality, we launched a robust primary educational initiative called Itetero Bright Academy (IBA) that aims to create a school complex in each of the country’s 30 districts. Besides the traditional forms of education, the academy also provides extracurricular activities and special weekend classes to educate the community about public health, economic empowerment, and talent development. More importantly, COVID-19 has challenged us not to rely on a traditional in-class education, but to have digital learning as a potential option too.
IBA has already achieved a lot. Having started in 2018, 112 children have graduated from our preschools, 26 young talents from disadvantaged economic backgrounds have been discovered, Smile Africa TV Channel has been started on YouTube, and 253 high school students have been inspired to take community action through our lectures. Now, our new vision is having a school complex in each of the districts by 2050. That is what I dream and hope of, and I will do everything in my power to make this a reality for Rwanda and all the underprivileged children.
Do you have any ideas to make this a reality? We can’t wait to have you on board!