Umubano

We are very excited to say that all of the schools Umubano has been working with over the last year have taken over the reigns and are now running their programs independently. Umubano will still work as consultants for these schools and their Rwandan parters, but in the interest of having each program be sustainable within each school, we will not be working as closely with them over the next year.

In addition, Marie and I have decided to put any new additions to Umubano on hold for the next 1-2 years as we will both be in graduate school. We will still be acting as consultants for students, teachers, or faculty who are interested in starting pen-pal programs at their own schools, whether with schools from Rwanda or elsewhere. Marie and I are both interested in reviving Umubano at a later date, but for now are content with the partnerships that have formed over the last year and are eager to continue our studies so that we may make this program even stronger in the future. Marie will be continuing her PhD program at UCLA in Sociology, and I will be starting the MA program at Columbia University’s Teachers College in International Education Development.

We greatly appreciate all of your support over this last year. We couldn’t have accomplished as much as we did without it!

Melissa Cushman & Marie Berry