{Xavier Viaud, 29, coming from a finance background, works towards promoting the charity he volunteers with the Rwandan Orphans Project. Through various activities across Europe, he’s trying to collect much needed funds to improve the lives of Rwandan children in need.This altruism and sense of giving, how does it translate into concrete action? How do these sentiments square against one another? }
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IGIHE}} : {Xavier, please tell us more about the Rwandan Orphans Project.
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Xavier Viaud}} : The Rwandan Orphans Project (ROP) is a centre for street children located in Kigali. We provide housing, clothing, food, health care and education and many other needs to around 100 boys from around the country. The project was born in San Diego, California when a group of friends decided to help children in need in Rwanda years ago. Sean Jones (USA) and Jenny Clover (UK) have been running the centre since 2010.
At the ROP we believe that education is our children’s best hope of escaping the strong grip of poverty. Because of this all of our children are either enrolled in our in-house catch-up school or go to secondary or vocational schools around Rwanda.
The ROP is much more than just an orphanage or a shelter for children; we feel all children, regardless of the hardships they may have endured in the past, deserve a chance to make something of themselves. Nearly every young boy who comes to the ROP Centre has fallen behind in his education.
We at the ROP know that education is the most valuable asset one can possess so in our catch-up school, each boy has a chance to continue their schooling. We also offer our older children the opportunity to attend a secondary school or vocational school after they have completed primary school. One of the biggest challenges in taking in children from the streets is changing their behavior. Through schooling and gentle guiding from our staff, we try to gradually change the boys’ behavior.
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IGIHE}} : {Where is that commitment with a humanitarian organization coming from and why choosing Rwanda ?}
{{XV }} : Briefly about my background ; I am from Bordeaux, France, I am 29, I have a background in corporate finance in London where I’ve been living for the past two years. I am also involved in humanitarian projects in Rwanda.
A few years ago, I discovered that country thanks to my fiancée who’s French/Rwandan. I have learnt a lot about the country and its people, I have grown passionate about a rich culture full of strength and resilience, and historical heritage, I got deeply moved by the tragic events Rwanda went through, I have been fascinated ever since by Rwanda whose exemplary governance practices have led to an astounding economic and social development.
After several trips enabling me to grow familiar with the culture and way of life within my fiancée’s family, I eventually felt the need to do something meaningful for me and people in need somehow; I guess I needed something more substantial in my life, something that would allow greater involvement with a community than anything else. Then in March 2013, while I was working in finance in London, I decided to take the step forward to help Rwandan children in need and got involved as a volunteer with the Rwandan Orphans Project.
This summer, I spent over two months teaching children a range of subjects and organizing activities for them, as well as trying to promote the project in Kigali. When I came back to Europe, it became clear that I could not simply go back to my life as I knew it before and decided to keep supporting the centre after Sean and Jenny appointed me their new European Ambassador.
This very unique experience most fundamentally and lastingly changed my perspectives; I have learnt the true meaning of humility, courage and resilience both from the ROP staff and the children themselves.
{{IGIHE}} : {How does the ROP benefit the local community ? }
{{XV }} : The Rwandan Orphans Project is one of the few centres in Rwanda that offers its own free education prgramme and allow poor children from the local community to attend our school completely free of charge. The ROP primary school therefore enables children whose parents cannot afford to pay school fees, even at local public schools, to get an education and if it wasn’t for the ROP’s free programme, they would not be in any education programme at all.
Our programme is a very successful primary school; out of 86 schools in the district of Kicukiro, we are one of only 3 that have had 100% success rate on our National Exams and that’s something we’re quite proud of. We are also ranked in the top 20 out of the local 100 schools in our area.
Not only our organization provides a quality education programme to our street children, but we also enable the local community to benefit from it.
{{IGIHE}} : {Xavier, please tell us about the ROP staff. }
{{XV}} : Our staff in Rwanda are the ones who perform amazing work with the children every day. Each of them has consistently shown dedication, enthusiasm and love for the children of the ROP. It is through their hard work, commitment and determination that each child is transformed from being a survivor on the streets to a healthy, disciplined and educated young man. The staff consists of six qualified teachers, a director, a supervisor and a deputy director/accountant, along with Sean Jones and Jenny Clover who run the centre.
Besides, two caretakers and two social workers look after the children; the caretakers have the responsibility of watching over the children and making sure they are safe, clean and healthy. They also organize activities for the children and they play a major role in mentoring the boys and encourage them to work hard in school and maintain good behavior. The social workers conduct interviews of incoming children, assess the mental health of our boys and conduct regular counseling sessions with those who need it. They also conduct workshops with the children to teach them life skills and prepare them for life outside of the Center.
{{IGIHE}} : I{n concrete terms, what are the major achievements the ROP witnessed this year ?}
{{XV {{}}}} : Well, this year we witnessed one of our own graduate from the National University of Rwanda with a degree in mechanical engineering. He is the first ROP graduate to finish university and we take great pride in his accomplishment and share his joy of success.
We started our agriculture project this year. This project is an income generating program that will use the income created from the sales of the vegetables we produce to help fund the ROP throughout the year. Our nursery school, another income generating program, also saw growth this year and we hope to see it filled to capacity when the 2014 school year starts in January.
In terms of recruitment, we’ve been able to hire more staff to help take care of the children and their needs. Today we finally have enough caretakers to manage the well-being of our 100 boys who rely on them for guidance and advice each and every day.
After nearly a year of photography lessons, a group of boys from the ROP had their photos displayed at an exhibition in Kigali as well as a photo auction in San Diego, California. Both exhibitions were a smashing success and visitors to both we surprised and impressed with the enthusiasm and talent of our young artists.
Also, this year we’ve been fortunate enough to have a team of dedicated international volunteers who have added extra-curricular activities to the ROP program and have provided badly-needed medical support for our children, among other generous deeds. They have also been instrumental in helping spread the word of the ROP’s work around Rwanda and all over the world.
One of most important successes is the expansion of our social work program. We now have two social workers who focus on the rehabilitation of our children’s behavior, their mental health and rebuilding the relationships between our children and what family members they may have, so that one day we may reunite them in a way that is successful for both family and child. And if we can’t reunite them to live together, it’s important that the children have relationships with family members if at all possible.
This particular programme, I believe, does make the Rwandan Orphans Project stand out among other similar organizations in Rwanda.
{{IGIHE}} : {Xavier, would you like to add anything else for our readers?}
{{XV}} : As mentioned above, a lot has been achieved in 2013. In the final days of this year we will be seeing five of our boys graduate high school and six others graduating from their vocational training schools. These eleven boys came to into the ROP years ago because they had nowhere to go and nobody to take care of them. In one month they will leave with an education, the pride of going from a street child to a graduate, and a world of possibilities that didn’t exist for them only a few short years ago. Today a world of opportunities is at their feet, not because of the ROP, but because of people like you keep the ROP alive.
So, as you can see the ROP continues to grow and we continue striving to provide the best education, comprehensive care and loving environment we can so our children can grow and thrive. But we cannot achieve our goals on our own. Being a small, yet growing organization we rely mostly on the generosity of individuals and small groups to fund our children’s program. While we are striving to find ways to generate our own income so that we may someday become self-sustaining, the truth is that we’re not there yet.
As we enter this holiday season I would like to ask you to consider making a donation to help support the children of the ROP. The donations we collect as we reach the end of 2013 will play a crucial role for the outlook of the Rwandan Orphans Project in 2014 and will dictate what services we will be able to continue providing our children and what options we have for providing even better care and support to them in the coming year.
I would like to tell you that this is an opportunity to be part of something great that is truly changing the world, one amazing child at a time.
{{Info}}:
{{Facebook: www.facebook.com/RopRwanda
Give: www.virginmoneygiving.com/orphansinrwanda
Web: www.rwandanorphansproject.org/}}
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