Our approach to creating educational and economic opportunity for tomorrow’s leaders consists of four core programs:
- Establishing schools of academic excellence, servant leadership and entrepreneurship
- Providing scholarships for orphans and students who otherwise can not afford to attend school
- Building essential, sustainable businesses that provide essential products and services
- Recruiting individuals and organizations from developed countries to visit, study, work and invest in Rwanda
Our Programs - Establishing and Supporting Schools
“We are not educating job seekers, but rather job creators!”
Bishop John Rucyahana
Sonrise School was launched by Bishop John Rucyahana in 2001 to be a “light on a hill.” Bishop John’s initial vision was to create a boarding school that would set the standard for academic excellence and servant leadership development. The majority of students were orphans in order to demonstrate that every child is redeemable, no matter how needy. Now in its seventh year of operations, Sonrise is considered one of the top academic schools in the nation and the vision for educating and equipping the next generation of Rwanda’s leaders has also grown. Based on recent national exams, it now ranks among the top academic schools in Rwanda. Today, the school has over 900 students. Approximately 60% of the students are orphans. They are continuing to add a grade a year to the school. The first secondary grade 6 class (equivalent to the US high school senior year) will graduate at the end of 2010. Equipping and supplying quality facilities and programs to eventually board and educate over 1200 students continues to be one of the top priorities.
Kigali International Community School (KICS) was launched in September, 2006 by several expatriate families including Mary & Dabbs Cavin and Jessica & Todd Brogdon. It was established to fulfill Rwanda’s need for an English-speaking, American curriculum international school. Such a school is necessary to attract to Rwanda more expatriate families with school age children and to offer Rwandan families an alternative high quality school in Kigali. In 2007, the school moved into new facilities, allowing it room to grow. It currently has 90 students from preschool through high school representing many nationalities. About 40 percent of the students are Rwandan. KICS is actively seeking American teachers.
Establishing the University of Technical Entrepreneurship is in its beginning stages and we are actively seeking individuals and organizations to partner with us. The school’s graduates will possess the entrepreneurial training to launch and run their own businesses. They will have the hands-on professional skills to provide high quality services with excellence and integrity. The professional disciplines taught will address Rwanda’s greatest needs (construction services, accounting, banking, hospitality management, nursing, etc). The core curriculum will include courses in servant leadership, entrepreneurship, computer skills and English.
Our Programs - Providing Scholarship Funds
Providing Scholarships for future leaders is one of Bridge2Rwanda’s highest priorities. Scholarships are currently needed for over 500 orphans enrolled at Sonrise School. To date, scholarship funds have been received from numerous sources including individual donors and annual fund raising events. However, as our programs expand, the cost of boarding and educating students continues to increase. Four of Rwanda’s top high school graduates in math and science were awarded four-year scholarships to attend Hendrix College, a well respected liberal arts college near Little Rock, AR to begin Fall, 2007. These Hendrix-Rwanda Presidential Scholars are required to return to Rwanda after their four years in the US. Efforts are underway to provide at least 20 more Rwandan students with four-year scholarships to attend Hendrix and other US universities to begin Fall, 2008.
Our Programs - Building Essential and Sustainable Businesses
In July, 2007, four global, faith-based nonprofit organizations joined in an historic partnership to create Urwego Opportunity Bank of Rwanda (UOBR), the country’s largest bank for the poor. Urwego Community Bank, a ten year old nonprofit microfinance institution, owned by World Relief, World Relief Canada and Hope International was merged into Opportunity International’s new Rwandan commercial bank. The combined operation has offices in 27 of Rwanda’s 30 districts, more than 29,000 loan clients and over 4,000 savings clients. UOBR has $4.5 million in equity capital and a loan portfolio of $1.8 million. One of the bank’s goals is to make finger-print accessible savings accounts available to every Rwandan family. Todd Brogdon serves as the bank’s CEO, and Ross Nathan serves as COO. Dale Dawson, Bishop John Rucyahana and representatives of all four nonprofit shareholders serve on the bank’s board of directors.
Our Programs - Recruiting individuals and organizations
In 2006 three families with children moved to Rwanda – Dabbs and Mary Cavin and Todd and Jessica Brogdon from Little Rock, AR and Ross and Ramini Nathan from Bangalore, India. Together, they launched the new Opportunity International bank and the Kigali International Community School.
Dr. Otto Helweg, retired engineering professor, Hoover Medal winner and leading safe water expert, his wife, Virginia, and Justin Hughen moved from Little Rock to Rwanda in January, 2007 to launch Living Water International’s water well drilling program and for Dr. Otto to serve as an adviser to the Rwandan government.
In mid-2007, Elizabeth Brill, a graduate student at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock moved to Rwanda to work at the Millennium Village Project, and Rebekah Lewis moved from Little Rock to Rwanda to teach English at KICS.
During June, 2007, a team from Hendrix College including President Tim Cloyd, Board Trustee David Knight, two faculty members and 12 students made an educational tour of Rwanda. The team identified future study abroad and internship opportunities, and also interviewed top Rwandan high school graduates for four Hendrix scholarships.
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