A Vision for the Future
“To build a nation, build a school.”
-Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize–winning economist
I am a wildlife veterinarian by profession. In 2014, I was doing an internship with the nonprofit organization, Gorilla Doctors, and there was this young girl standing alongside the street, on my way to office, always greeting me with a warm, beautiful smile. She would still be there each evening when I left work. I wondered why she wasn’t in school and eventually learned it was because her parents couldn’t afford it. That made me sad and I started wondering if there was something I could do.
I had previously worked with preschoolers, helping them with schoolwork, playing with them, etc…and I was always amazed by their creative and interesting dreams and positive attitude.
Preschool age kids always dream big and especially when they know they have someone on their side, they can be inspired to dream even bigger! They gain confidence in their abilities and develop a positive attitude towards life and its opportunities. However, across the world, and especially in the developing world including Rwanda, many countries face high levels of inequality and unequal access to high-quality early learning opportunities within communities. Yet, high-quality preschool child care lays the foundation for a successful start at school and later in life.
When I was hired to work for Gorilla Doctors a few months later, I immediately started supporting her school fees as well as several others in the neighborhood. Eventually, I decided it would be worthwhile to open a small school mostly for children from lower socio-economic levels within our community and that’s how Archangel Academy was born.
Having grown-up in a poor neighborhood I know how it feels to experience poverty conditions and lack of access to education. I thought that by making my contribution towards early education for the less fortunate would be the best way of giving back to community. I believe that this will not only give young children the best possible start in life but is also the best investment that anybody can make in order to break poverty cycle amongst families in Rwanda or elsewhere.
Archangel Academy concentrates on lower and middle-income families. These are personally motivated parents who are typically eager in terms of their children's development and are willing to pay reasonable fees within their means in order to have their children attend our school. We have adjusted our fees to be affordable even to the most disadvantaged families. Every family contributes as much as they can but, for some families, free child care is the only option which we aim to provide through donations ($200USD covers one child for one year).
Today, we have 26 students ages 3 to 6 years. With enough funding, we have the capacity to support up to 90 children.
This is my dream and we are at a critical phase while we build and grow, but I can see what is possible.
