This workshop was incredibly eye-opening and meaningful for the students. I saw it across their faces as soon as they starting picking up the Rwandan childrens’ drawings. The students got a chance to see with their own eyes the stark images that these street youth carry around with them everyday. Rwanda may be in the process of rebuilding, but the experiences of the genocide are still ever present in the minds and hearts of both young and old. This is why education and dialogue are crucial for the development of Rwanda and the healing process in a post-genocide climate. Youth especially need outlets to talk about their hopes, fears, and experiences. Umubano Sister School Program is trying to be a part of that process by connecting students, facilitating cross-cultural learning, and enhancing access to educational resources in the US and Rwanda. -Melissa Cushman

To view some of the drawings created by the Rwandan children, visit Caroline’s website at www.carolinekleindienst.net
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“I want to learn about the changes they faced after the genocide. I hope one day to go there and make my own personal impact no matter how big or small it may be.”  -Sandra, 17

For more information about Discover Worlds and the Umubano program check out our website: blogs.discoverworlds.org.  If you would like any more information about the program, are interested in becoming a chapter director or partner teacher, or are interested in joining the Umubano staff or Board of Advisors, please contact us at umubano@discoverworlds.org.  We want you to get involved!

Thank you so much for your support.

AMAHORO!  (Peace in Kinyarwanda!)

Marie Berry & Melissa Cushman
Co-Program Directors
Umubano Program
Discover Worlds
blogs.discoverworlds.org/umubano
umubano@discoverworlds.org

Last July I visited out newest partner school, Nyamata Catholic Primary School, with a group of American delegates on Global Youth Connect’s Rwanda delegation.  When we arrived at the school there were several hundred students playing in the school yard.  There were groups of students in a circle singing a song, another group of students playing vollyball, and another group of students passing a ball down a long line of students while playing some sort of game (check out the picture at the top of this email!).  When our group entered the school yard we dispersed and joined in the fun.  Before long, I found myself in the midst of a “high-five” game with a group of young girls.  Although we couldn’t speak the same language, we spent a long time laughing and giggling about the silliness of the game and asking each other basic questions in our respective languages.

Later that day we met with a group of teachers from the school.  We asked them if genocide ideology was still present in their school or community, or if they ever worried that there would be discrimination amongst students again.  One of the school directors mentioned that the teachers implemented a class at 7:45 a.m. each morning where students could come voluntarily to discuss ways to eliminate genocide ideology permanently in Rwanda.  As it turns out, in order to encourage students to come for the early class, the school provides breakfast to the students.  We were so excited by this idea and learned that since the program had started, not only had incidents of discrimination at school decreased, but so had the dropout rate!  Nyamata is a city in Rwanda that was profoundly impacted by the genocide, and in the years since it has experienced one of the nation’s highest dropout rates.  Through programs like this, Nyamata Catholic Primary School is advancing education in Rwanda, and we are proud and excited to be partnering with them through the Umubano Sister School Program!

For more information about Discover Worlds and the Umubano program check out our website:  www.discoverworlds.org/umubano.  If you would like any more information about the program, are interested in becoming a chapter director or partner teacher, or are interested in joining the Umubano staff or Board of Advisors, please contact us at umubano@discoverworlds.org.  We want you to get involved!

Thank you so much for your support.

AMAHORO!  (Peace in Kinyarwanda!)

Marie Berry & Melissa Cushman
Co-Program Directors
Umubano Program
Discover Worlds
www.discoverworlds.org/umubano
umubano@discoverworlds.org

The mission of the Umubano program is to empower students in the US and Rwanda to cultivate sustainable cross-cultural relationships with the goal of increasing global awareness, compassion, critical thinking, and grassroots activism.

A new Program Chapter Director has joined the Umubano team!
Noah Gehling from Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Umubano program at CKS began back in March of this year, when Marie Berry, Joe Stockton, and myself did a presentation for the 4th-8th graders about our trip to Rwanda in 2007 and the Umubano program. The students decided that Umubano was a program that they wanted to participate in, and quickly started writing letters to their partner school, Mburabuturo Primary School in Kigali, Rwanda. The CKS students were then able to hear the Director of Rwandan NGO Amani Africa speak at school to talk to them about students their age in Rwanda. The CKS students soon began a school supplies drive when they found out that schools in Rwanda many times don’t even have simple supplies like pens and paper. These supplies were taken to Rwanda this last summer.

In the last month, CKS students received their response letters from Mburabuturo Primary School and were led in a discussion about what their Rwandan pen-pals had to say. Based on these letters, and their own ideas about partnering with their sister school, the CKS students will be planning their activities for the Umubano program for the rest of the year. Future activities include a scrapbook exchange, where both sister schools will exchange scrapbooks they made about their interests and experiences, as well as an art workshop where CKS students will look at drawings by Rwandan students and use these as inspiration for their own art creations which they will then send to their sister school.

As I (Melissa) prepared for our first discussion about the letters that I would have with students at Christ the King School, I wondered if it would be difficult to get the students excited about hearing what their pen-pals had to say. I wondered if they would think they were better than their pen-pals because their pen-pals’ English wasn’t as good as their own. I wondered if they would just laugh at the letters and throw them away. Boy was I wrong! The students savored every word that their pen-pals wrote, exuberantly discussing with their classmates about about how their pen-pal loved chocolate just like they did, or how they both were the oldest in their family. One girl told me, “I love to travel and see new places, and so does my pen-pal!” The students and I discussed questions that they might ask their pen-pal in their response letters. Another student said “I would like to learn what kinds of things my pen-pal likes to draw and write about, because I like to draw draw and write.” The students were amazed at all the things they had in common with their pen-pals and how their pen-pals were just normal kids like they were. The Umubano program seeks to bring these commonalities to the surface early on in our own lives – humanizing nameless faces of people across the world that both countries see in their textbooks and the media. The more students who become involved in the Umubano program, the more awareness we can create and relationships we can form!