We learned the local dances, holding back laughter at each other’s expense. The dancing abilities of the YGAP and Sanejo crew left to be desired (except of course for ours haha)… We were the regular Michael Jackson’s of Ntenyo. For the next 30 minutes we were not volunteers, we were immersed in delight of Rwanda, its beautiful people, and their open and warm acceptance of all.

The singing in unison was ongoing as the dust filled the air, and fancy feet were all at work. No one could deny the local builders were pretty impressed! We joined hands and followed their lead. The connections made were unique and genuine. There are 3 classrooms on the way up and it has been incredible to be part of such a dedicated team of builders and volunteers alike. We have been assisting this part of the project by laying and carry bricks, and putting in some genuine elbow grease.

The children at the school are simply divine. Their eager faces, and veracious personalities would warm even the darkest of hearts. Their desire to learn has been so encouraging to us all.

This weekend we drove to Lake Kivu and had the privilege to soak in and admire one of the most truly specular country sides we have ever seen. ‘The land of a thousand hills’ mesmerized us with breathtaking mountains, tightknit local communities, and thousands of tea plantations laid in perfectly straight rows. The children chased our mini bus waving and smiling with great delight as we passed by their townships. On Saturday night, we ventured down to the riverbed and we were taken out to a local fishing boat. It was a truly surreal experience with the river only lit by their petrol lanterns and the moons reflection in the water. The language barrier didn’t seem to be an issue as we laughed and sang Bob Marley’s, ‘One Love,’ with the local fisherman who kindly welcomed us upon their boats.

It’s almost too hard to describe how beautiful the people and children of Rwanda are, because we simply wouldn’t be able to do it justice. We feel so privileged to see first hand where all of the hard efforts of our fundraising have gone.

Our lives have been forever enriched.

By Kyle & Lei

As we drove into the school, our minivan full of eager volunteers was swarmed by the most beautiful group of wide eyed children we had ever seen. They appeared overjoyed to see us and it is impossible to describe the emotion that hit us.

The school day at Ntenyo started around 7am with Assembly. We will never forget the feeling we had as more than 300 children sang to us, “We are very happy!”. Their voices were angelic, their smiles infectious and their welcome so warm and gracious.

Our working day started on the construction site, where we are helping to build three classrooms. The builders and helpers spoke little English but by working together carrying bricks via a human chain, we managed to pick up a few words in Kinyarwandan and hopefully helped them understand a bit of English along the way.

We were promptly renamed Mama Amy and Mama Charlie ….our Rwandan names that will stay with us forever.

It is impossible to document life at the Ntenyo school…the experiences just kept coming…from building site to the classroom…..and this is only DAY 2!!!!

We have totally fallen in love with P6 and their teacher Francine. We are in awe of their enthusiasm and will to learn.

It is unfathomable to understand the hardships they face on a daily basis and I know we will never truly understand. We just hope we can make a difference.

Emma Mc Lean and Brigitte Duclos

Ntenyo Primary School; Ruhango District, Rwanda

In collaboration with the local government, church, and community, Sanejo & YGAP are helping to facilitate a community development program with the primary focus of improving all facets of the educational experience for those who are currently under resourced.

We have collectively witnessed and continually feel the passions, dreams, and talents of these young learners. We wholeheartedly endorse their dreams and strive toward making them reality. It’s our collaborative objective to provide an opportunity of education for all–regardless of socioeconomic status, race, religion, or gender.

After sad goodbyes with the volunteers from Group 1 returning home, the coordinators and the remaining volunteers could luckily welcome new, fresh forces from United States, Australia and Denmark. After their long travels, the six new volunteers were delighted to have reached Rwanda and excited to learn about the project experiences of the past two weeks.

While most of Saturday was spent helping the newcomers settle in, Sunday proposed cultural experiences and insights. One of these experiences was the visit to the local church where Sanejo Co-founder David has a special history. At the age of 13 a young David founded a children’s choir for the church, a choir that today still exists among the young children of the congregation. The pastor of the church was excited to have YGAP and Sanejo join David at the Sunday morning mass where the current children’s choir gave an amazing performance, demonstrating huge musical talent. To top of the experience David showed that he himself is still a bit of a songbird as he performed with original choir members who still attend the church. The
Sunday was ended with an orientation meeting for new volunteers and a bit of world cup football.

Mon 28 – Tues 29 June:
Start of week three was kicked of with the students and teachers of Ntenyo Primary School giving the new volunteers a warm and musical welcome! Volunteers and teachers were then paired to continue the success and development of the teachers English skills. The day included a lot of classroom observing from the new volunteers, as well as interaction with the children during recess. One of the observations made included the students’ great interest in the volunteers as well as the dedication towards also teaching the volunteers

Kinyarwanda, the language of Rwanda.
At the building site things were moving along successfully. Not only had the local contractors done an amazing job over the past weekend with the brick work, the team could also learn that thanks to such efforts the construction is moving along ahead of schedule.

Wed 30 June –Thurs 1 July:
In the absence of one of the teachers on Wednesday, some of the volunteers took charge spending a large part of the day teaching the children in P1 – the youngest class at the school. As the English skills of the children at this age are limited, it demanded creative thinking from the volunteers who took it upon them to teach the students the alphabet as well as different children’s songs.
On the building site local contractors and the team began the restoration of the grave site of David’s grandparents. Wednesday evening was spent with an orientation meeting back at the guesthouse where David and Elliot shared the vision of the project with all volunteers, a vision that in everyway inspired.

Thursday 1st of July was Rwanda’s National Independence Day which meant that the school was closed. However, at the building site the constructions continued. In addition to the construction of the two school buildings and the grave site the contractors also spent Thursday improving the very poor toilet facilities at the school.

Thursday afternoon was ended with a festive goodbye session, as Elliot had his last day at site as he is leaving Rwanda on Saturday. This meant that fruit and juice was served to all contractors who very gratefully accepted. Furthermore, the day ended with volunteers and contractors joining in a traditional Rwandan dance, to the amazement of all. You can view video clips of this at YGAP’s YouTube Channel, photos on Flickr and much more on our Facebook profile.

Both Tues and Wed excelled at a tremendous rate: the classroom structure remains to fly up and our volunteers teaching method continues to improve the education levels of students at the Ntenyo Primary School. The heat remains a testing challenge for our volunteer labourers but spirits remain high as our relationship with the local labourers deepens.

Thursday marked the final day on site for our group 1 volunteers who return back to Australia and USA. Katherine, Clare, Meg and Pete have been part of our amazing dream-team here in Rwanda and unfortunately have to depart from Rwanda. As part of the school’s gratitude to their incredible service, a ceremony involving students dancing and singing was held. Tears came to most volunteer’s eyes watching such a powerful demonstration of gratitude. We take this opportunity to THANK all volunteers for such invaluable service during this project – we love you all and hope you travel back safe.

Thurs was concluded with a communal lunch between volunteers, teachers, local labourers and community members. When we say communal, we are talking about lunch for 55 people! Hard task to cater for but perfectly executed!!

Our volunteers are now looking forward to a weekend of rest and restoration!
For more photos, please head to our facebook fan page.


The first day for the team in the village involved meeting with the Headmaster of Ntenyo Primary School in rural Rwanda. While discussions commenced between David, the Headmaster, the local builders and those with vested interest in the school on where and how the classrooms should be built, Sarah and Laura spoke with some of the teachers. It was during these discussions that the team really started to grasp not only the gravity of the problems the community faces daily but was inspired by the resilience shown by the teachers who persist and are motivated to teach the future generations of Rwanda with the limited resources they have.

Nestled in Southern Rwanda, the Ntenyo community has been living with damaged and dilapidated infrastructure since the devastation of the genocide against Tutsis in 1994 and war of the 1990s. Sarah, Clint, Marten, Stephanie and David established Sanejo in order to empower tomorrow’s generation through promotion of education in Rwanda and the East Africa region. One of the goals of the organization is to fulfill David’s grandfather’s dream of reconstructing the primary school within his community.

Presently, 597 children are enrolled at the Ntenyo Primary School but there has been a significant decrease in actual attendance because the school’s facilities have severely deteriorated and are not up to government standard. For all of the 597 children at the school there are 9 teachers for 6 classrooms with nothing more than a few blackboards, limited benches and scant basic materials. This is clearly not an ideal learning environment. It significantly decreases the chances of children being able to continue their education into high school.


Before we had even arrived the Headmaster had organized that on Wednesday the community would come out for Umuganda (a monthly community service participated by all Rwandans). On Wednesday we too were to join Umuganda. Sarah and Laura were put straight to work joining the women in clearing the ground for a road while David jumped in with the men.

After the hard labor we were honored to be a part of the normal post-umuganda debrief where the local leaders chat with the community. Surprised that David, having achieved so much in life, would return to his grandfather’s home to rebuild what his grandfather set out to build – an unexpected occurrence in Rwanda – it was at this meeting that we gained and were blessed with the full support of the community. Not only did the community support our work but demonstrated willingness and a desire to work along side and together with the volunteers – stressing that the school is for their children and the future of their children’s children and therefore should have a hand in its growth.


Developing the English program was the next step on Friday. David, Sarah and Laura returned to the village to meet with the teachers, who requested – motivated and committed to learning English – that each volunteer to be partnered with a teacher to work along side for the 5 weeks to come.

The day ended with a trip to the local cement supplier. Filling the car with cement, the team walked their way back to the school as the sun set through the maze of Ntenyo village, greeting the locals and chatting to the older school children as the younger children, excited by the “mzungus” (white people), formed a trail behind.

While the week was jammed packed with long days and sleepless nights – the team could not have asked for a better beginning – foundation for the school commenced, we gained the communities full support, learned more about the larger story behind why this project has come to be and was overwhelmed by the number of people involved and committed in making this happen. It was an inspiring week in which we realized how much this project – which began over 30 years ago by one man’s dedicated to education – goes beyond us as a team with ideas and resources to incorporate a spiraling web of individuals motivated to educate and make change in Rwanda. The week ended with the realization and satisfaction of how much this project was something much more beyond ourselves.

With everything set in place the team could not wait for the entire Y-GAP volunteer team to arrive and get started in rebuilding the school, supporting the teachers in learning English and making life long lasting friendships with the community.

How can you help? It does not take much. We encourage you to consider
donating the money equivalent of one or two of your daily coffees,
newspapers or beers to our project. It might not seem like a lot, but many
small donations can go a long way, which in this case will allow us in
Sanejo to prepare for the unexpected.

How do donate? You simply go to www.sanejo.org click on the donate button.
This will take you to a page where you can use your Visa or Master Card
and put money on our PayPal account.

For those who want to donate but can not use their cards on website,
please send an email to: marten.genfors@sanejo.org for advise on how to
send the money.

Sincerely

The Sanejo team

P.S. Sanejo doesn’t want to infringe upon your time, and therefore we have
tried to keep this message brief. But for more information go to
www.sanejo.org and read about why the Ntenyo Primary School was selected
as Sanejo’s first project!

KIGALI – President Paul Kagame, Friday, challenged the youth to be major achievers, saying that there is a lot they can offer that other people in the country or continent are looking up to in order to attain their own aspirations.
Kagame made these remarks at the award-giving ceremony dubbed “Celebrating Young Rwandan Achievers,” (CYRWA), an initiative of the Imbuto Foundation.

While addressing guests, the President urged the young men and women not to waste themselves or their time, but rather they should go ahead and achieve what they can to drive the nation to prosperity.

“There is nobody else that is going to do it for you. Nobody else is going to do it for our country and nobody will do it for our continent.

“We Africans are always referred to as poor, the disaster area, poverty stricken….People will sympathise with you, come and help, but that is all.’’

He noted that the more achievers, the stronger the critical mass that will make the development process more dynamic and faster, hence enabling the country to stand on its own.

“We don’t have to wait for tomorrow, it should have been yesterday… There is a lot in young people that we can build on to be where others are today. These youngsters have shown us that it can be done”.

“In other parts of the world, some people have taken prosperity for granted while we are still struggling for it. We must work hard to enable our young people achieve what they can.” Kagame emphasised.

As regards self sustainability, the President advised the youth to work hard, think hard and smart to develop themselves and their country.

Kagame also reminded the audience that it is not pre-ordained that Rwanda or Africa should remain poor, but rather it is imperative to invest energy and time to change the situation.

“It is not written anywhere, whether in the Bible, Quran or dictionary, that Rwanda or Africa, are there to remain poor, or that we are sub-human and others are superior and more human that they should look after us. “Our nation will develop through building on energies and successes of individuals as well. You can not develop Rwanda or Africa unless you start from the individual to the nation and then to the continent,” Kagame noted.

He therefore recognised the achievers as representatives that other people look to for more achievement and contribution to Rwanda’s overall development.

The President pointed out that the young recipients of the awards were not only achievers, but also examples to others.

Eight young Rwandans who have strived towards the highest levels of personal and professional excellence, and in turn contributed meaningfully to their communities, were given prestigious awards at the colourful ceremony.

Larissa Kaze, Jean Pierre Muranga, David Mwambari and Beth Kayitesi were among those awarded.

The First Lady and Patron of Imbuto foundation, Mrs. Jeannette Kagame also urged the young achievers to be torch bearers that must endeavour to live to the expectations of those who nominated and awarded them.

“I encourage you to aim for excellence, to believe in yourselves, to educate, engage and empower other young people and most of all, surround yourselves with people who bring out the best in you. Such are qualities of leaders who aspire to be part of a dignified generation,” she urged.

The government, One United Nations family, the Private Sector Federation, and individual contributors were recognised for the support they render to the Foundation’s activities.

Kaze, a US based Rwandan who won the award for reaching out to the community through three orphanages that she founded in the country, also pledged her continuous support to community development.

The programme which started in 2007 aims at promoting visionary leadership, excellence, integrity and the zeal to aspire to inspire other young people.

Speaking with entrepreneurs, university students and community members, Mwambari highlighted Sanejo’s mission, using his personal story to illustrate the opportunities that education can provide. Mwambari, explained that Sanejo was founded as a vehicle to invest in tomorrow’s generation, specifically in partnering with those communities that have recently experienced war or exist in a state of extreme poverty. The funds from the Asante Sana Charity Ball will support the Ntenyo School Project in Rwanda. Sanejo and Y-GAP volunteers will travel together to Rwanda next summer to participate in the reconstruction and expansion of the school.