Teach A Man To Fish Model

Written by Arise Rwanda Ministries Founder and President, John Gasangwa

The greatest investment you can give to a child in Rwanda is an opportunity to education.

For some of you who you don’t know my early childhood story, I was born as a Rwandan refuge in a refugee camp/concentration camp in Uganda. My family had moved from Rwanda in 1960 and was exiled in Uganda because of the political tension and the wave of the first genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda had started.

My first class was under a tree, second and third classes were under a grass hut, and we had to build our own fourth grade class. I had to walk without any shoes on my feet. They quickly became all callused and blistered from the heat, rocks, thorns, etc. Every day I walked for about 14 kilometers (9 miles) with no breakfast, no lunch and only one meal at the end of the night at my mom’s mud brick house. With all these hardships, it never stopped me from going to school. My mom was my greatest inspiration to press on…

Things started to turn around for me in the first term of my fourth grade when I was 10 years old. I returned home so proud with my report card as number one in class! But instead of my mom being so excited and happy for me, I saw her face drop. It was one of the darkest periods of her life. How was she going to break the worst news to her son? We sat there for a moment as she cried. When she looked at me there were tears falling from her face like I had seen rain fall from the sky. Finally, in a gentle voice she told me “My son, I regret to let you know that you are dropping out school because I can’t afford $10 a year to continue sending you to school.” My heart went from being so excited that all of my hard work had paid off to complete despair. All of the hope that was in me fled my body and left me feeling empty.