Hope Shines

During my two weeks in Rwanda I had limited access to the Internet as I was so busy finalizing logistics and running the camp. So I apologize to those of you who were checking for updates. I am now back in NYC and still cannot wrap my mind around what we really did, what we actually were able to provide to these beautiful children. Everything came together as if it was serendipity. But let me back up so you can come along on the ride with me.

After my arrival in Kigali on July 12th I spent the days leading up to the camp finalizing last minute details for the camp and working on product development for baskets and textiles out of Rwanda for my job here in the states. I spent time with Beth who works for Fair Winds Trading (from whom I buy the baskets and textiles) and who is also on my Board of Directors for Hope Shines. Beth and I spent some great time together at the hotel where we stayed, Mille Collines (the actual Hotel Rwanda). She is so wildly creative that its interesting to sit back and watch her work. An added benefit to this trip was being able to work with her on product development.

Within the first couple of days after my arrival I met with Leonce and Emmanuel, the founders of Rebero. They recently hired a financial officer also named Emmanuel who attended the meeting. We reviewed the schedule of events for the camp, discussed times and expectations. They were so open with excitement and could not wait for the camp to start. They kept telling me how happy the children would be.

Next, I met with Gavin and Duncan from Opportunitas Aequa (OA) who would be running the soccer camp for the male orphans while my group worked with the females. See, back in April, Willa, founder and CEO of Fair Winds Trading and on the Board of Directors of Hope Shines, was in Rwanda and happened to meet these two guys . She was impressed by their mission to improve the quality of an impoverished child's life by teaching soccer camps and leaving behind a refurbished field with equipment. (You can learn more about this group at http://oaprojects.org/.) She put us in contact and miraculously they were able to make the timing work to be in Rwanda at the same time to run a soccer camp in conjunction with Hope Shines. Gavin and Duncan brought with them 3 other soccer players and coaches to run their camp. During our initial meeting I expressed how important I felt it to be that our two groups socialize and endeavor to become acquainted. I believed this would lend itself to a united front to the children thus demonstrating how we were all working together. One of the global goals of both camps was gender equality. They agreed and we immediately became fast friends.

By the 18th all of my volunteers had arrived and we began orientation. It was important for the volunteers to feel the sense of a group effort. I planned activities during orientation where the volunteers could get to know each other a little better. We discussed all of the crafts and games I had planned and how the week would flow...now let me digress here for you to understand the scope of planning this one-week camp...

Planning the activities and crafts was quite a process. It took 16 weeks of classroom learning at Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentoring Supervisor Certificate Program (http://www.bigsnyc.org/a-center.htm) and many months of researching games and crafts that would translate easily. I found that the camp games I grew up playing could easily be interpreted as wasteful. For instance, take the egg on a spoon race. If it falls off and breaks we would laugh and not think twice to go get another egg and put it back on our spoons. These kids would not understand why we were purposely letting edible egg break. Or think about how we take water for granted. Water is a precious resource to these children. We all have done a water balloon toss. These children would not think it funny to let drinkable water splatter to the earth. They need to be drinking it, for its not readily available. Besides this issue, I had the language barrier to overcome so I had to find activities that they would understand, would be able to easily play yet learn a lesson from. Many of the games and activities I ended up making up on my own. I had every hour planned with an activity or a craft with backups in case the girls did not like it (that was really my greatest fear...what if they hated everything I had planned? I laid awake many nights thinking how I could best navigate through that circumstance). Fortunately, they all worked out and this fear was never realized.

We had received many donations of craft/art supplies that I planned activities around. Danica, who was on the trip last year and is a member of my Board of Directors and her daughter Miranda, who was one of my volunteers collected tons of supplies. Kim, one of my other volunteers brought a suitcase full of additional supplies she had donated. We had an arsenal of markers, scissors, yarn, glue, paper, pens, sequins, buttons...you name it .... we had it! As I was in the planning stages, I made a manifest of everything they had collected and tried to plan accordingly. For instance, I wanted to come up with a cool craft to use the yarn. I found "nettie dolls" (click here to see a nettie doll. http://www.netw.com/~rafter4/nettie.htm). Traditionally, they are made from scraps of rug fabric and carry a folk art legacy. Instead of using rug fabric, I thought we could use the yarn and also some scraps of fabric from my textiles line for macys, which I buy out of Rwanda. The amount of markers, crayons, scissors and glue we had was the perfect amount. One of the most gratifying things to come out of the camp was towards the end of the week when the girls finally realized that we had and would continue to have enough for all of them...they did not need to grab or hoard. They all would get as much as they needed and wanted to make the craft we were working on. They are used to not having enough that they all will grab for anything they can. But when they started to realize that we had enough for all of them it was amazing to watch that sigh of relief when they became a relaxed child, confident that whatever they wanted would be given. That was powerful to witness. But let me get back to the actual camp and what took place...

The camp itself ran for 7 days. 5 of the days we were with the girls at Rebero and then 2 of the days I brought the girls down to the soccer camp so my volunteers could go and have "African" adventures. I felt it important for the volunteers to have fun also. Yes, they were there to give but I wanted to be able to give back to them as much as possible. My dream only became a reality because I had 4 amazing young women with me, Deana, Kim, Miranda and Hailey supporting this adventure and 100% believing in what we were working towards. Each volunteer brought keen and unique quailities to these children. They worked together like magic. I could not have conjured up a better group of individuals.

We also had two translators who were paid for their services through the gracious donations of Beth and Danica. There is absolutely no way we could have made it through the camp without them. The translators were KEY! I would give the directions and the translators would tell the girls. They were such an integral part of the camp. They learned the dance, made the crafts and overall had fun with the girls.

Each morning we would arrive at the Orphanage at 9:30am and the kids were always wild with greetings, singing songs and yelling out to us...hugs and smiles all around. That's a pretty sweet "good morning"! By 10am the boys had been taken to soccer camp by OA and we would begin our scheduled activities. The first thing I did was break up the children into 5 different groups where they would be matched with one Hope Shines volunteer. This was key for communication, relationship building, organization and mentorship. All of the groups named themselves after animals. We had the Hens (Deana's), Cows (Hailey's), Birds (Miranda'a) Pigs (Kim's) and Gorillas (mine).

Everyday, the first activity of the day was Dance. Dance is a HUGE and beautiful part of Rwandan tradition. So, I wanted to teach them something new in the form of dance. This would provide a fun outlet where they could let their love of dance shine through and help to expand their minds in the form of English language counting skills and memorization through continuity. I drew from my cheerleading days and choreographed a dance made up of four simple eight-counts. Everyday, except when they went to the soccer camp, we taught them a new eight-count. All the volunteers were taught the dance at orientation. On the last day of camp the girls had to choreograph their own eight-counts in their "animal" groups and teach their volunteer leader the new eight-count with the goal to have a DANCE OFF! Each group, including the volunteer had to preform the dance plus their new eight-count for the contest. The girls got really into it and had a blast performing their own creations. This was so fun to watch!

After the dance portion of the day we would move into a quieter activity usually in the form of a craft. On one of the days I had them make "Name Plates". We handed out markers, scissors, glue and anything they could use to decorate their names. This activity centered around self-esteem. I wanted them to feel that their names were beautiful and the decorated "Name Plates" were thus a reflection of themselves. For after they were finished with their masterpieces we collected them up and passed them back out so that each girl had someone else's name. We went around in a circle and each girl had to say something nice about the girl whose name they had been given. They said the most profound and beautiful sentiments about each other. These children are so deeply connected that their love for each other is well demonstrated. Each girl was shy when they were being given accolades but would break out in the biggest grin after!

When we would have a little bit of down time while waiting for lunch to be served or before we would start the next activity we would play "Hen Hen Lion". (Duck Duck Goose...but they didn't know what a goose was...so we changed it up). They loved this game. We ended up playing this almost everyday. They even began to organize themselves into playing it if they had a water break with time left over. They were either playing "Hen Hen Lion" or would be practicing the dance.

We were privileged enough to have two local female business leaders come in and speak to the girls. Thus starting to fulfill the goal of acquainting the orphans with local Rwandan mentors they could liken themselves to. These two local business leaders, one who was an orphan herself, spoke of focusing in school, how to become number one in your class and that you have to push hard to be successful. She told them that you cannot wait for someone to do it for you you need to go after it yourself. She told them that we volunteers are there because we are educated and we worked hard to make this camp happen for them and that if they want to be like us or like her they have to stay in school and be diligent in their studies. The girls listened intently and seemed to be absorbing what she was saying. She expressed to me that she would like to go back to Rebero and speak solely to the older girls about sexually transmitted diseases and how to protect yourself, how to say "no" if they want to, discuss menstruation, and how to stay away from a dangerous path in life. I could not believe her request as it was serendipitous. Her mentorship is key to one of the global goals for Hope Shines. These girls, these growing young women have no "mother figure" to ask these hard questions to. Who tells them about maturity and the radical changes the female body undergoes? They largely have to figure it out on their own. For this mentor to establish a relationship with these young women means we are taking a step towards educating them about these difficult topics of conversation.

One of the soccer players from OA was a young woman named Lindsay. She is quite an accomplished player and has spent most of her life "playing with the boys" and mainly beating them. She asked if it would be ok to give a talk to the girls one of the days they were at the soccer camp. Again, serendipity. Here is a strong female leader playing soccer who has a great message to tell. She spoke to the girls about never giving up and that just because you are a girl doesn't mean that you can't follow your dreams. She described her experiences from playing soccer and how it has taken her all over the world. She drove home the point that if you work hard, go after your hopes and dreams you can achieve them. It was a great talk!

On another day we "Played Store". We cut out 20 slips of paper and handed them out to the girls and asked them to number them 1-20 to work on their counting in English. I then told them to decorate each slip of paper and that they were making their own play money and that once they had "made" 20 Rwandan Francs they had enough "money" to buy something really exciting! My goal with this activity was to teach them that while you do work hard at making something (in this case it was play money) you can get something much better with that hard work in return. Just like when we made the "Name Plates" the volunteers sat on the floor with the kids and helped them make their play money. This increased the bonding and took a step toward the ultimate goal of these girls learning to eventually be able to form relationships with adult females. As for the items they would be "buying" we had tote bags donated from The Cartoon Network - enough for each girl. We stuffed these bags full of other donated items including underware, wash clothes, soap, hats, bracelets, beach balls, pens, stickers...tons of fun things. Once the girls were done making their play money we asked them to line up and one by one they "paid" us 20RWF and received this awesome tote bag filled with goodies. I have never in my life seen more unbridled gratitude. They were running up to us with humongous smiles saying THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I had to step out of the room because I was so overwhelmed with emotion. I needed a moment to wipe away my tears. We all were enraptured in that moment and how joyful these girls were. Then we quickly packed up a grab bag full of items for the boys to pick from once they returned from soccer. I could not let the girls have something without the boys getting fun things too. So, Kim and I scurried to the back and collected everything we could find that a boy would like out of our "arsenal of supplies". The boys came back from their day of soccer and we had them line up and grab 2 items out of the bag plus they all got a pen. The boys were happy to be getting presents too!

The two days that I took the girls to the soccer camp were such fun days. On the second day Miranda opted out of the "volunteer free day" as she was staying longer in Rwanda and would be able to partake in a safari afterward and came to the soccer camp too. Do you remember field day in school? This is what it was like! Field day was my favorite day of the year. To run around again like a kid again was so fun. We played handball, worked on soccer drills, and played tag. The goal in blending the two groups is gender equality. The girls like to run around and play too! OA worked hard to plan games where the boys and girls were split evenly on each team then they rewarded the boys who treated their female teammates with the most equality. We would walk to the soccer field with all the kids in tow. You would always have 4 or 5 kids holding your hand and if it could not be your hand then it was the hand of the girl holding yours, as if it was an extension of you. They would race to you to give you hugs and to be the one holding your hand.

On the last day of camp we held a Graduation Ceremony where each child was presented with a certificate of completion. Deana, who was on the trip last year and decided to come back as a volunteer, designed the certificates. She made one for OA and one for Hope Shines. Not only did they receive a certificate they also received this awesome new toy called a Skoodlez (www.skoodlez.com ) from toy manufacturer Kamar, who graciously donated 100 Skoodlez to our effort and spent a ridiculous amount of money to get the toys to the kids. I have a relationship with Joy and Christopher Kamar through macys, as this product is part of my assortment. When Kamar learned about what I was doing in Rwanda they immediately sent the Skoodlez. During graduation, each child was recognized with a certificate of completion, received handshakes and hugs from all of OA and Hope Shines and also received a Skoodlez. The kids were dancing, laughing, playing and enjoying themselves so very much. We put on some music and then we all danced and played with the kids. Leonce and Emmanuel had purchased sodas for everyone and we all had a nice sip of something sweet. This was a huge treat to the orphans as they never receive so many gifts in one day!

On the last night in Rwanda, we had our goodbye dinner with all of the volunteers from OA and Hope Shines. We were also joined by Janet and Joy, the women who run the basket producer groups in Rwanda and by Conso, the Managing Director from the textiles company which I also buy products from through Fair Winds Trading. These women are extremely respected business leaders in Rwanda. Gavin, of OA, and I said words of humble thanks to our volunteers who worked so hard to pay their way to Africa and who made this launch the success it truly was. Janet then stood and said the most lovely sentiments. She thanked us for having a "heart for Rwanda" and for "helping Rwanda as a whole for when you help our children you are helping all of us, you are providing a better future". I continue to reflect upon her words.

I am still trying to wrap my mind around all the amazing moments we shared with these extraordinary children. We truly did something special. I am so thankful to my donors who helped to make this possible. I owe thanks to Dr David Janash, my dentist here in NYC, who trusted me enough to write a check out in my name, for we do not have our nonprofit status yet. I literally cried in the waiting room as he wrote the check. This money made possible some very grand things to happen for this launch. I also owe thanks to Joan Hajjar for also raising money for this endeavor. She and I met at Big Brothers Big Sisters and was so moved by my project that she went out on her own and raised funds. I would not have been able to put this together without the education I received from BBBS and Fordham in the Mentoring Supervisor program. Thank you to Cartoon Network for the kind donation of the tote bags. Lastly, thank you again to Joy and Christopher Kamar for rushing to get the Skoodlez to these deserving children.

I arrived in Kigali last night. I am thrilled to be here, after a year away, to spend time with the children and people who have inspired me so much--and moved me to start Hope Shines.

I am here for the first-ever Hope Shines Summer Program, which will be held from July 19th to 25th at the Rebero Orphanage in Kigali, Rwanda.

The seed idea for Hope Shines came last year, when I traveled to Rwanda with a group of professional colleagues to observe the bountiful impact, on the weavers and the Rwandan

economy, of the import basket program in which we were all involved.

On the first day of our trip we visited the Rebero Orphanage.

Before we arrived, we all knew that Rebero was a very special place, but we were not ready for the energy, joy, and emotion we encountered there. This orphanage is run by two extraordinary young men, Leonce and Emmanuel, both of whom were orphaned by the atrocities of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Miraculously, they were spared from brutal death, and each made a private vow to dedicate their lives to helping others. Through a twist of fate, Leonce and Emmanuel met, and in 2003 they founded Rebero. Their original mission was to provide relief to the overwhelming number of children orphaned as a direct result of the Genocide. However, their mission has expanded to also include children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Through fundraising efforts (many of which were facilitated by the basket importer we were traveling with), they built a bakery next to the orphanage and now have income to help cover the costs of providing for these children. Currently, about 80 orphans are supported by Rebero.

We were all overwhelmed by the attention from the children--hugging, tugging at our shirts, eager to look at the little screens of our digital cameras after we took pictures of them, and us, together. So excited to have visitors--all the way from the United States! As we spent time there, seeing the facilities, tasting the amazing bread, and, of course, talking and laughing with the kids, I was inspired by the two strong father figures these children were so lucky to have in their lives. At the same time, I wondered where the mother figures were. Holding little Iyoshi in my arms, I thought of my own mom, and how blessed I am to have her. So many motherless girls surround me; with incredible changes young girls face as they ascend into adulthood, who would be there to listen to their secrets, to give answers to questions all girls have?

I decided to start a program that would help mentor these little girls. Over the course of this past year, many of the colleagues who were with me on that first trip last year worked to build this program, and I am so grateful for their efforts and support, because it has all come together.

Next week four more women will be arriving in Kigali to be volunteer counselors with me at the first-ever Hope Shines Summer Camp. We will play games, create dances, do craft projects and other wonderful activities, which I will write about in future posts.

It's small--it's just the first--but I do hope that the girls will have fun and feel hopeful for their future. What we all experienced last year was life-changing, and I truly hope that this trip will be the same for these volunteers, who will be forever treasured as the original volunteers who selflessly made this possible. I am humbled and truly grateful for their donation of time and expenses to travel with me this summer.

Murakoze!

*Please read more about the Rebero orphans at http://reberokigali.blogspot.com

Photo above: April and Iyoshi, 2007.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

All systems are GO!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

SKOODLEZ and Hope Shines

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

How to donate.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

It takes a village

Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Best Days Ever

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Beginnings...

About Me

Blog Archive