Posts from June, 2009
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The mural at the Safra Community Center
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Arif and students from the Dedication of the Edmund J. Safra Community Center
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continuous updates during the day of ceremony
Check back to this blog for photos, updates and reflections from attendees of the official dedication of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, being held on Tuesday, June 23, 2009.
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The view from the Agahoza-Shalom Youth Village
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The Village has Come to Life
June 22, 2009
By Tina Wyatt, Project CoordinatorI arrived on Friday, June 19th. I came this time for the inauguration of the village; which takes place on June 23rd.
The last time I was here was in December 2008, when the first class of kids came into the village. I am completely amazed at the changes that have taken place in 6 months at the village. It has completely come to life.
The community center is complete with a beautiful mural and a dining hall that will seat 800 people. There are beautifully painted garbage containers all around the village. Green grass is growing everywhere. There is a full farm with rows of banana, mango, orange, grapefruit, avocado and clementine trees. There are rows of cucumbers, zuccini, beans, pineapple, tomatoes, casava and cabbage. There is a cow shed with 4 pregnant dairy cows and two chicken coups. Amazing. Kids singing. There are 4 guest/graduate houses almost complete. There is a huge sports field complete with a football (soccer) field, two basketball/volleyball courts with shaded seating.. the village has come to life. The kids have embraced their new home and have taken ownership of keeping it neat and clean and have involved themselves in all that is offered.
Last night at dinner, I handed out our agahozo-shalom rubber bracelets to the kids.. actually they were swarming me to get them. They all could not wait to have them. I asked each one of them what their name was, where they were from and what they wanted to be. I heard doctor. When i asked what type of doctor, the common answer was “medicine”; but upon talking about it more, they wanted to be dentist, eye and alot of general doctors. There were politicians working in the ministry. There were 2 girls that said they wanted to be president. I told them they both couldn’t be president at the same time. They said one would be president of Rwanda and the other would be president of the US! Look out President Obama. Another girl told me she wanted to be a pirate! I said NO NO NO! You don’t really want to be a pirate! One of the boys corrected me and said she wanted to be a PILOT!
They love to talk about the future and want to know all about us, the visitors.
The village has come to life.
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Agahozo-Shalom Village Videos
In December 2008, the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village opened its door to the first 125 residential youth of the village.
Click on the video thumbnails below to view life beginning at Agahozo-Shalom.