Umubano

Umubano Sister School Program empowers students to participate in sustainable cross-cultural exchanges between the US and Rwanda with the goal of increasing global awareness, compassion, critical thinking, and grassroots activism.

Get Involved

Teachers and School Faculty

If you are a teacher or a school faculty member who would like to get your school or class involved in the Umubano Sister School Program, please email umubano@discoverworlds.org. Make sure to include your school’s name, the ages and grades of the students who would be involved, and your contact information.

Program Chapter Directors

To be involved with the Umubano program is to be an advocate for children in the US and Rwanda. 

The responsibilities of an Umubano Chapter Director include:

  • Establishing a US partner school and teacher to work with
  • Overseeing all communication and presentations to this partner school, and reporting all essential information to the Umubano Co-Directors who will match the US school with its partner in Rwanda
  • Optional fundraising for own school programs
  • Arrange for at least 3 visits with partner school in the US:
    • First visit: Introduce program, collect student profiles, give assignment of writing a letter to their pen-pal by second visit. Show PowerPoint presentation on Rwanda available from the Umubano Program.
    • Second visit: Introduce students to their Rwandan pen-pals, encourage a dialogue on cross-cultural understanding. Work with teachers and school faculty to facilitate other classroom activities provided by the Umubano Program.
    • Third Visit: Continue to facilitate exchange of letters, continued development of dialogue on issues relating to Rwanda, human rights, genocide, and global awareness.
    • More Optional Visits: workshops, fundraisers, etc.

It is easy to join the Umubano Team as a Chapter Director. All you need to do is let the Umubano Directors know you have a school and a teacher in mind who you think would be interested in the program. Then, we send you all the materials, forms, presentations, classroom activities, etc. to get you started. Email Directors Marie Berry and Melissa Cushman at umubano@discoverworlds.org to join our team!

Volunteers

If you are interested in volunteering, but not being a Chapter Director, please contact Marie and Melissa at umubano@discoverworlds.org to find out how you can help Umubano.