Teach 30 Rwandan Women to Read, Write & Calculate

Dear sir/ Madam,

Thank you for your great support for helping women from our community to learn reading, writing, and calculating.

We are very grateful that due to your donations we were able to reach all the goals that we shared with you in our previous report.

We are very happy to inform you that on February 4, 2013 we have started our new academic year with 20 adult women from our community.

The women are completing their first term program this April. This year’s students are amazingly unique and impressive. In the first term the majority of our students are able to read and write all alphabets from A up to Z. They understand well how to exercise their rights. They have started practicing in class how to speak, discuss, and debate on different topics which prepare them for being able to stand in public and claim their rights. The most impressing thing is that all students attend every day on time from Monday to Friday. They motivated and very interested in learning, for preparing their future. They want to learn business skills so that they can know how to come up with innovative income generating activities.

Some women from our program have been giving testimonials about their expectations about our program in their lives. Mukankuranga Jeannette said:" I decided to join this literacy program, because I appreciate the impact of this project in the lives of my neighbors from this class. Usually I never direct myself as I could not read a road post. Apart from that I use to ask my neighbor to read for me letters I receive from my friends. I fear to participate in local meetings. I use to give more than required balance to my customers in my selling cassava flour business which makes me always have shortfalls. My neighbor from this program does all these things without any problem. I wish at the end of this program I will be able to do all that things by my own and have no problem concerning with illiteracy".

The following are the challenges that we have:

• Although there is a difference from last year, we are still unable to regularly pay the teachers' salaries.
• We are still having shortfalls in our monthly operating costs such as buying chalks, books, etc
• We are still unable to get teaching materials including instructional materials for a better undestanding.

The following are the plan we have for the second term 2013:

• We are still renting the costumes of the dancing troop that helps us in fundraising.
• Teaching students how to make a sentence.
• Teaching women’s rights, and business skills.
• Buying teaching materials.
• Organizing different fundraising strategies.

We can't thank you enough for your consistent collaboration. We really appreciate it very much.

Don’t you think that a woman is the first person who can effectively do family management? What do you think can be added in our project program as innovation?

Thank you again for your support to our program!

Dear sir/ Madam,

Thank you for your great support.

We are excited to let you know that the third graduation of 20 women in our program happened on December 11, 2012.

In the previous report our students was about to start the last trimester, and now all the women successfull finished the program. They are now able to read, write, and calculate. Moreover, they now understand well how to exercise their rights, and they have enough knowledge about small business skills.

The most impressing thing is that all the students succeed well, and no one repeated the year. On the graduation day, the women read and wrote down in front of local leaders and other invitees. This was to test their knowlegde that enable them to receive the certificates. (See the photos)

The women gave testimonials about the impact of our program in their lives. Nyirangwabije Bellancille (on the photo) said:"before joining this literacy program  I was unable to direct myself as I could not read a road post. I used to ask my neighbor to read for me letters I recieve from my children. I feared participating in local meetings. I used to give more than required balance to my customers in my selling vegetables bussiness. Now, I have no more problems related to being illiterate. I even have my own bank account to save my money."

The following are the challenges that we have:

• We are still unable to regularly pay the teachers' salaries.
• We are still having shortfalls in our monthly operating costs such as buying chalks, books, etc
• We are still renting the costumes of the dancing troop that helps us in fund raising.

The following are the plan we have for the following year:

• We are now registering new students for our program.
• On February 4, 2013 we will start our new academic year.
• As usual, we will teach 20 adult women from our community
• In the meanwhile, we will be buying teaching materials.

What do you think can be improved in our project program? Do you as well have illiterate adult women in your community?

Thank you again for your support to our program!

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are grateful to our donors for supporting our last two terms of teaching adult women how to read, write, and calculate.

Students are now in holidays which ends on September 3, 2012, and this is the first day of the third term term of teaching. At the end of this term we plan to have achieved all our plans as listed in our previous report.

So far, the women have learnt to read all the alphabets. They can read sentences, and they are even able to read and write letters by themselves. Four students have already opened their own bank account which will help them to save money to feed their families and run their small projects.

The women are joining different cooperatives which help them to develop their families and learn from others.
One woman have got legally married, and this is beneficial as it gives her full rights to her family property.

One part of our operating cost is covered by the raised money from Global Giving donations as well as different fundraising including the performance of the dance troop.

One of the biggest challenges that we have is that some of our students have troubles in reading on the blackboard. This is probably due to their ages or the eye vision. We wish to take them to hospital for eye check up. Another challenge is that teachers are still working without being paid. We still need to rent some costumes of the dance troop.

Our plans for the rest of the teaching period are to make sure that all students are able to effectively read, write, and calculate. In addition, they should have required skills to run successfully their small projects. They should have bank accounts, and join cooperatives. They should know their rights, and how to exercise their rights. They should participate in local meetings, and give their opinions. Therefore, they will participate confidently in  the decision making in those meetings. In other words, we want to turn them into social change agents.

What else do you think we should include in our next program? What do you think that a woman needs to develop her community?

Thank you for being part of our team in teaching women.

Our team is gratefully thanking our donors who continue to support us in our program. Since March 2012, we have taught 20 women how to read, write, and calculate. These women study from Monday to Thursday 1-3Pm. We are about to finish the first term in the end of this May. Students are able to read all alphabets and write simple sentences. Our students’ ages range from 16-55.

Uwajeneza Adelphine, a 23 years old student in our program does selling vegetables on the street. She added that the reason why she decided to join this program is that she was willing to exercise her rights and be independent in her daily life. She told us that she faces challenges in giving the exact balance to her customers, and she is even not able to keep her secrets because she always asks others to read her messages for her. She said:”one day I was appointed to be a leader in our community, and because I knew that I did not know how to read I immediately denied… usually, my young sister is the one who manages my bank account, and I want to study hard and be able to control it myself”.

We are glad that the local authorities have allowed us to use the classroom for free, because they realized that our project is bringing a good change in the welfare of a woman in our community. This was among the big challenges our team had. The donations we got from Global Giving helped us to buy the start up costs for the first term.

To raise the monthly operating cost is still a problem for our team. To date, the major challenge we still have is that teachers are still working unpaid. Another problem is that we still rent some costumes of the dancers from the troop that support in fundraising through its performances.

Our plan this year is to:

• Teach the women about their rights, and encourage them to send their daughters to school, open their own bank account in order to be able to save, to have self esteem and participate in the decision making levels in the community, and have legal marriage so that a child and the mother can have right to access the family property.
• Teach them about business skills in the last term which will help them to raise income in their families.
• Mobilize them to join cooperatives which will help them to combine their efforts with others and have sustainable development.
• Encourage the young students in our program to join public school so that they can be able to continue their studies up to secondary school as soon as they graduate from our program.

What do you think about our plan? Don’t you think that an illiterate woman is exposed to miss different opportunities?

Thank you very much!

All the best,

Baguma Innocent

Dear Sir/Madam,

We would like to thank our donors for their appreciable contribution in the achievement of our activities. Nowadays, we are in registration process. This academic year we will teach 20 adult women. We will start on 1^st March, 2012 teaching four days per week.

Our project made a big social change especially to students who graduated from our program. Our fresh graduates have joined teams that help them to raise income. Ahobantegeye Jeanne, our former student, told us that she has sent her daughter to school. She is part of the Abanyamurava team that sells charcoal and this team is planning to buy a motorcycle by the end of this month as another income generating activity for their team. “Before I thought that I can’t join an association, because I thought it is for the literate people” Said Ahobantegeye Jeanne. She added: “to study how to calculate helped me in my small business, for I am able to change money”. All the 20 women who graduated last year have sent their daughters to school, and they have opened their own bank accounts. They know well how to read, write and calculate. They are even able to lead themselves by reading road sign posts. They vote themselves, and they attend local meetings.

To raise the monthly operating cost is still a problem for our team. The big challenges that our team is facing are that teachers are still not being paid, and to rent the classroom is also another challenge for our teaching program.

The dance troop that supports us in fundraising through its performances is progressing well. Recently, it was in a competition that was organized on the national level, and it won. The problem is that we still rent some costumes of the dancers.

Our plan is to start the teaching program in this March. We will teach these women how to read, write and calculate in a period of 12 months. We will also train them about their rights and business skills.

Don’t you think that the development of a family and a country in general starts from the women’s literacy?

Your donations make a big difference in our community.

once again, we thank you for your generosity and giving heart.

With gratitude,

Innocent Baguma