CAMPAIGNS
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Bright School CampaignPhase 1 of our new campus is complete. Classes started in our new Bright School in January of 2019.
This building houses 8 classrooms, is Bright School's first permanent home, and was much awaited by children, families, and teachers. Our facility attracts more than 1,000 visitors each year from around the world. Bright School is one of two schools in Rwanda that meet our high standards for modern, engaging education. Already, though, our classrooms are being fully utilized so we need to move into Phase 2. When school resumes after the COVID closure, a significant number of our students will be old enough to begin P1. The government has asked schools to open a new P1 class for them. Our dilemma is: If we house this class in the space now being used as the TEACH Rwanda and Bright School office, where will they be located? Our kitchen is already in a tiny, temporary building. We are exploring a variety of short-term and long-term alternatives. . |
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REMAINING NEEDSPhase 2 needs to provide sufficient space for P1 and offices in September 2020 and P6 in 2021.
We also are required to have facilities such as a permanent kitchen, computer room, and outdoor learning area. This phase of our campus must be designed to enable TEACH Rwanda to expand as our mission reaches more and more teachers and children in Rwanda. For example, we are ready to launch our National Teacher Development Center on the Bright School campus so participants can observe and practice the skills they are learning in our Modules. We are currently exploring options for Phase 2. Stay tuned for more to come soon about our expansion of Bright School and our National Teacher Development Center. |
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TEACH Rwanda now operates four bustling preschool classes as well as Primary 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (first through fifth grades) at Bright School. Children in all socioeconomic groups including the most vulnerable and children with differing abilities. Children read books, write original stories in their journals, solve math problems when they build with blocks, and discover scientific principles when they play in sand and water. Education officials and organizations are amazed to see children at Bright write stories at an age when most children in Rwanda are still learning to spell their names.
TEACH Rwanda and Bright School have been national leaders in developing
a holistic response to the COVID-19 lockdown.
We provide emergency food, at-home activities in which children learn with their families through play, regular phone communication of teachers with children, a weekly Mobile Library with story reading following COVID precautions, and an English class for our staff.
TEACH Rwanda and Bright School have been national leaders in developing
a holistic response to the COVID-19 lockdown.
We provide emergency food, at-home activities in which children learn with their families through play, regular phone communication of teachers with children, a weekly Mobile Library with story reading following COVID precautions, and an English class for our staff.
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To mail in your donation:
1. Download the Donation form. 2. Complete the form 3. Mail the form with your check to TEACH Rwanda 1787-C Chateau Place Easton, PA 18045-5473 USA or TEACH Rwanda Post Box 91, Muhanga South Province, Rwanda Make checks payable to TEACH Rwanda. |
Set up your automatic deposit to TEACH Rwanda’s account at Embassy Bank for the Lehigh Valley. Contact teachrwanda.treasurer@gmail.com for details.
Visit our TR Bright School Campaign Facebook Page
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determine a future
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF RWANDAN EDUCATION.
We're changing the culture of education in Rwanda by affirming and encouraging genuine understanding through kind, responsive, well-informed, modern teaching practices. The Determine a Future Campaign was created to support teacher education and children's enrichment in Rwanda.
The launch of this campaign is an opportunity for children, teachers, and families across the world, as well as at home. By getting involved, you're supporting a higher educational standard and making a transformative difference in Rwanda.
Scroll down to get involved.
We're changing the culture of education in Rwanda by affirming and encouraging genuine understanding through kind, responsive, well-informed, modern teaching practices. The Determine a Future Campaign was created to support teacher education and children's enrichment in Rwanda.
The launch of this campaign is an opportunity for children, teachers, and families across the world, as well as at home. By getting involved, you're supporting a higher educational standard and making a transformative difference in Rwanda.
Scroll down to get involved.
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TUITION ASSISTANCE FOR VULNERABLE FAMILIESMore than 60% of the families of children in Bright School are unable to pay their children's school fees. A scholarship fund, Fund a Future, has been established to pay part or all of these fees. Some parents do volunteer work as well to ensure their children get a high-quality education. Fund a Future is supported solely by donors to TEACH Rwanda. In Kigabiro and Harmony Schools, parents who cannot pay withdraw their children. Consequently, many children fend for themselves on the street and are ill-prepared to enter primary school, so their risk for dropping out in early primary is high.
Recommended amounts:
$450 supports a preschool or primary student for one year. This includes school tuition, porridge, bus transportation to school, uniforms, & enrichment activities during school breaks |
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FAIR TEACHER SALARIESTeachers at Bright School are paid about $90 to $150 a month, plus health insurance and retirement benefits. These salaries are at the low end of salaries paid in Muhanga. We would like to pay competitive salaries that reflect our teachers' advanced skills and knowledge, experience and desire to learn more, dedication to their professional work, and that can reasonably support a family. Inflation in Rwanda is eroding our teachers' ability to even purchase food for themselves. Most live in small, rented rooms. Only one teacher has a bicycle for transportation, the others all walk to school. We also rely on volunteers to provide support for children with differing abilities, music, French, English, work as substitutes, and engage in many other roles.
Recommended amounts:
$200 pays a teacher (with benefits!) for one month. $400 pays a teacher (with benefits!) for two months. $2,400 pays a teacher (with benefits!) for one year. |
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PORRIDGE FOR UNDER-NOURISHED CHILDRENAll of the vulnerable children at Bright School are food insecure. Many children in Kigabiro and Harmony schools are also undernourished. These children eat one meal a day if they are lucky. Some collect glass on the way home from school. They sell the glass to get money to buy something to eat. Enriched porridge is a traditional form of feeding hungry children, and in some cases this porridge at school is the ONLY food children get all day. Growth--physical and mental--is stunted when children do not eat well, so stunting is common in our schools. Our children are VERY small for their age. Without adequate nutrition, children are listless and in pain--not conducive to learning!
Recommended amounts:
$40 feeds a class (20 students) for one month. $80 feeds a class (20 students) for two months. $480 feeds a class (20 students) for one year. |
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CLASSROOM FURNISHINGSTEACH Rwanda furnishes classrooms with child-size tables and benches that invite collaboration and active, engaged learning. Low, open shelves are provided so that learning materials can be displayed for children to choose and return items when they are finished. We also supply book display shelves for classrooms so children can see the covers of the books they choose. Mats are placed on the floor for children to read, build with blocks, listen to stories, and work in small groups. As children get older, the size of the tables and benches increases to fit the children. Classrooms are inviting and encourage children to cooperate, be responsible, and scaffold their knowledge in meaningful ways. All furniture is made in Rwanda by local carpenters.
Recommended amounts:
$45 provides a small table. $75 provides a large table or a book display rack. $110 provides shelves for learning materials. |
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LEARNING MATERIALSTEACH Rwanda provides books, blocks, puzzles, markers, glue, scissors, sand, tires, balls, journals and story paper, sidewalk chalk, dolls, smocks, fabric, pretend animals, a few computers, and many other items through which children explore their world and gain an understanding about social studies, science, literacy, social and emotional skills, culture, math--all areas that support lifelong, meaningful learning. We also seek out Rwandan resources that are free or inexpensive: cow horns, animal bones, rocks, bottle caps, banana leaves and fiber, small sticks...
Recommended amounts:
$8 provides wooden puzzles. $10 provides a doll or sidewalk chalk. $15 provides a picture book. $17 provides markers. $25 provides story paper. $225 provides a set of blocks. |