LATEST NEWSLETTER Munezero House, BP 285, Kamembe Rusizi District, Rwanda. . E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: (+250)788755357 1st and 2nd Weeks for September 2014 Ngwino Nawe Village receiving support from Jo Doyne’s mother On her return from leave Jo Doyne came back at Rwanda Aid with good news from her mother Sarah Colquhoun. She organised two fund raising events for Ngwino Nawe as part of her work with the international Siroptamist organisation. At the first one, about 11 women came to hear from Jo speaking about the work of Rwanda Aid. They also came with gifts of early learning toys to support the development of child centred teaching methodology. At the second event, they raised £150 to go towards making additional furniture for the new classroom at Ngwino Nawe. Chris Bowern visits two vocational training centres supported by Rwanda Aid With Jonas, Chris Bowern visited the two Vocational Training Centres supported by Rwanda Aid which are at Ntendezi located in Nyamasheke District and Nkombo located in Nkombo Island and Rusizi District. When we visited Ntendezi, the rains kept many students away, and even our 4-wheel drive had difficulties in the mud. This VTC is well equipped with hand tools and few power tools and is working to improve its timetable and workshops. Follow-up visits have been planned to discuss concerns with the staff and their ideas for improvements At the Nkombo VTC students were all away on their two month internship placements with local businesses. This VTC was purpose built and is well structured, but has no power tools or machinery yet. It also requires a covered work area for bricklaying and a machine workshop to comply with the Rwandan carpentry syllabus. However, looking at the hand-crafted tables, chairs, cupboards and other furniture made by the students at both centres, there is real potential in what future carpenters, joiners and cabinet makers could achieve with modern wood-working machinery. Debbie Sellers is supporting teachers with training in Rusizi District It is two weeks now that Debbie (fifth from the left on photo) has been in Rwanda and she is enjoying being here with the team at Kamembe. Her role this year is to train and support eighteen primary school teachers, one from each sector of the Rusizi District, to be a mentor for their school and others in their sector. Over the next few weeks, the hope is to select these teachers and then run two weeks of training at the end of October/ beginning of November. Debbie is very pleased to be back in Rwanda - she visited a number of times whilst teaching in Kenya 2004-2008 and has always appreciated the beautiful country and people. Community farm training in Muganza Sector, in Rusizi District This week fifteen farmers were trained in organic farming, all of whom come from significantly impoverished backgrounds. After sharing skills, experience and challenges with the RA trainers, the Sector agronomist, and the Sector officer in charge of Social Affairs, RA supported these farmers with gifts of farming tools to get them started. Prepared by Jonas Ngirinshuti