ASYV Ground Breaking
Founder Anne Heyman’s Ground Breaking Speech
August 17, 2007
Rwanda
Honorable Ministers, Governor, Ambassadors, Distinguished Guests, ladies and gentlemen –
I am thrilled to be standing here with you today as together we watch this fantastic dream start to become a reality. The idea for the creation of the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) came to me in November of 2005 after I learned of the extraordinary number of orphan children living in Rwanda. My first thought was of the state of Israel, which, after the Second World War, was faced with an influx of orphan survivors of the holocaust. I knew that they had created youth villages, but knew little of their history and nothing of their current status. I could not get the thought that perhaps this was a solution for Rwanda out of my mind, and I spent the next 4 months making inquiries and talking to anyone who would listen about this idea. In January 2006 I met with Steve Schwager, who is the head of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, (the JDC) and Steve suggested I get in touch with Dr. Chaim Peri, who was then the head of Yemin Orde Youth Village in Israel. That was the beginning of an extraordinary partnership, which is responsible for what you see here and will learn more about today.
The JDC is an international aid organization which was established 94 years ago and today has operations in 66 countries around the world. From the beginning it has been guided by the core Jewish value of Tikkun Olam—the notion that that we have an innate responsibility to stand up, take action and help repair the world’s most distressed communities—regardless of location, race, and religion. In 1945, JDC facilitated one of the first operations in war-torn Germany and Eastern Europe to provide critical relief to survivors of the Holocaust. JDC sees the words “never again” as a universal call to action that transcends all borders. And this is why JDC has been working in Rwanda since 1994, initially providing medical care in refugee camps in Goma / Zaire, later providing scholarships to encourage survivors to pursue their future through education, and today serving as the umbrella for the piloting of a youth village model which has the potential of being replicated for orphans of the genocide across Rwanda. The JDC is honored to facilitate the international pooling of resources and invaluable expertise from America, Israel, and Rwanda that is the ASYV - with the goal of—together—paving the way for a more hopeful and healthier future in this country.
The ASYV’s goal of restoring the rhythm of life is an adaptation of the healing philosophy which has been developed and implemented with great success by Dr. Chaim Peri and the team at the Yemin Orde Youth Village in Israel. It is Dr. Peri’s belief that children who find themselves without parents can nevertheless be given “parental wholeness” – that the village as a whole can provide the necessary support and security to ensure that the child grows up healthy, capable and strong – never as good as real parents, but the next best thing when the other is not an option. Two key methods of helping the children to heal – to be able to live in the here and now and to be able to dream about a future – are the notions of Tikkun HaLev, which literally means healing the heart, and Tikkun Olam, which means healing the world. Tikkun Halev refers to those therapies which are aimed at the needs of the individual child, while the Tikkun Olam program is one which requires each child to participate in activities that are directed at helping others in need. It has been well established that through reaching out to help others, one takes huge strides in healing oneself. The result of this philosophy and methodology are young adults who are not only able to work and get married and have children, but who recognize their obligation to give back to their community and to make the world a better place.
Dr. Chaim Peri was supposed to be here with us today but for health reasons he was unable to travel at the last minute. He did ask that I read a message to you from him:
“Although I cannot share the joy of this important occasion by physically being there with you, I wish you to know that my heart and thoughts are with you in Rwanda.
From our village on the slopes of Mount Carmel where the Biblical prophet Elijah has brought God’s fire down to earth I’m sending you my heartfelt greetings and blessings.
For over 50 years we have been raising children on this mountain to become successful parents, members of their community and leaders who protect and build their new country. Some of those are right now there with you, carrying the invisible torch of the flame of Mount Carmel. It is our wish that the children of Rwanda, will, just like them, become the new builders of their society and their country. Miracles do happen – they happened to us, but through hard work and a great belief. We thank God Almighty for engaging us as partners in this marvelous journey. Bringing the children of Rwanda in the words of the prophet Isaiah “A spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and valor” new times in which “Nothing evil or vile shall be done”.”
I want to end by thanking everyone who is working on this project and you, the people of Rwanda, for being so warm and welcoming and for giving us the opportunity to work with you and bring this remarkable model to Africa. I look forward to the day when graduates from ASYV are standing on some other podium somewhere, thanking some other community for the opportunity to bring their message and do their work of Tikkun Olam.
No commentsJDC Breaks Ground on Rwandan Village for Orphans– Agahozo Shalom Youth
August 16, 2007
Rwanda, Africa (PRWeb)
On August 17, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) will dedicate the future site of the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) in Rwanda to help provide not only a home, but opportunity and hope for these future leaders. The Village will incorporate a protected residential environment and a high school for 500 Rwandan orphans and provide a secure community including innovative educational programs, sports, a health clinic and psychological services. Both the Israeli and American ambassadors along with the Governor of the Eastern District, the Hon. Theoneste Mutsindashyaka and other government Ministers are expected to attend.
[To read more of this article, download the PDF.]
No commentsJDC to Open Rwandan Youth Village
August 14, 2007
Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
A youth village to serve 500 impoverished Rwandan orphans will be dedicated this week by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
The village is the brainchild of Anne Heyman, a South African-born New York lawyer who was moved to help after learning that 15 percent of Rwandan children are orphans due to genocide.
The JDC will dedicate the future site of the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village on Friday.
“[Jews] have a collective experience with the Rwandans, having come through genocide,” said Will Recant, the JDC’s assistant executive vice president.. “We’re very much invested in the long-term, sustainable commitment to make this happen.”
The village will provide Rwandan orphans, many them with HIV/AIDS, with a “safe, structured environment with a rich community life where children are exposed to all elements of parental and familial normalcy, thereby providing wholeness in the wake of destruction,” the JDC said in its overview of the village.
Agahozo, Kinyarwandan for “the place where tears are dried,” is modeled after the Youth Aliyah Village of Yemin Orde that housed Holocaust orphans in 1953.
Recant said numerous high-ranking political and business leaders are supporting the village, which is slated to open in 2009.
No commentsASYV Team Members Travel to Rwanda
Founder Anne Heyman and Executive Director Sifa Nsengimana join ASYV Country Director Alain Munyaburanga in Rwanda for 10 days. They have a very busy schedule over the next few days. Look for information and updates on our site. We will be posting “Anne’s Diary from Rwanda” to let everyone know about ASYV happenings. So, come back often!
No commentsAbout ASYV
About the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village
After sitting through a lecture last November about the devastating 1994 Rwandan genocide, Anne Heyman, a lawyer and mother of three from New York, could not get the stark statistics she learned that night out of her mind: some 1.2 million children, almost 15% of the Rwandan population, had been orphaned as a result of the genocide. 
Anne walked out of the lecture that autumn evening one year ago and hasn’t let a day go by without thinking about those Rwandan children. In just a matter of months, she conceived and developed the Agohozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV). The village will serve as a residential high school for 500 Rwandan orphans, offering a safe haven from abuse and exploitation, as well as a springboard to cultivate a future cadre of educated and motivated Rwandans prepared to shape their country’s future.
Recently land was secured for the establishment of ASYV -— no small task considering the amount of red tape. The project is moving forward at a rapid pace because of Anne’s tenacity, commitment and the strategic partnerships she has developed with the JDC, Rwandan professionals, and the Yemin Orde Youth Village in Israel. ASYV is actually based on the model of the Israeli Youth Aliyah Village of Yemin Orde which was established in 1953 to accommodate Holocaust orphans and immigrant children. 
Anne is originally from South Africa furthering the project’s power, due in part to its international scope. She has hand-picked a seasoned team of passionate and experienced professionals from America, Israel and Rwanda. In order to ensure that the Village lives up to its ambitious vision, Anne, together with Rwandan professionals, also plans to establish a Rwandan non-profit to provide local oversight and quality control.
One of the most poignant and potentially impactful aspects of the project is the team of Ethiopian Jews - most of whom arrived in Israel as “orphans of circumstance” having left their parents in Ethiopia - to serve as the trainers and teachers for this very unique model of education and development. These Ethiopian-Israeli immigrants understand first hand the hardship their African neighbors are experiencing — many of them walked through the Sudan to escape civil war, lived in refugee camps and witnessed loved ones die along the way. Upon their arrival in Israel, some found themselves orphaned and it was their experience at the Yemin Orde Youth Village that gave them a second chance at life.
Anne encapsulates the uniqueness of this project: “This project is important because it has so many levels of impact: On the lives of Rwandan children who would otherwise not have a future; on the future of Rwanda which stands to gain so much from a Village that graduates children committed to making a difference in their communities, on Africa’s perception of Israel, on the self-perception of Ethiopian-born Israelis and on the Israeli community’s perception of these Ethiopian-born Israelis as givers rather than takers. It also provides many opportunities for those in the States - from corporate America to school children - to make a difference in a truly meaningful way.”
Most importantly, Rwandans themselves, on every level — from local officials to government ministers — have embraced the philosophy behind the Village.
Ultimately, every child who enters the village will be told: “Yes, you have suffered terribly in your life but you are here because there is a special role for you in this world. You will achieve greatness. You will make a difference in the lives of others. You will make sure that what has happened to you does not happen to your children,” explains Anne.
Press
Press & Publicity
In war-torn Africa, a Jewish home emerges
By Stacey Palevsky
June 15, 2007
Jewish News Weekly
More than 1 million children in Rwanda are orphans.
The magnitude size of that statistic — equal to 15 percent of the nation’s population — took Anne Heyman’s breath away.
She wondered: Could she help? And if she did, could she weave Jewish values into her efforts?
Yes and yes.
Last year, Heyman founded the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village, which is slated to open its doors to Rwanda’s teenage orphans in 2008.
The youth village will be a home for about 125 teenagers, all of whom have lost their parents to the Rwandan genocide or AIDS. Eventually, the village’s population could swell to 500.
But Heyman’s project is not simply international aid work. She has put a Jewish face on the project, modeling it after a similar, successful program in Israel.
“I want people to look at Israel and say: What do they do that is of value to the world?” she said during a presentation at the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation on Monday, June 11. It was the first stop on her cross-country campaign, the goal of which is to raise $10 million by next year.
“There is a campaign to demonize Israel. And we can fight that in a really positive way,” Heyman said.
[To read more of this article, download the PDF.]
Survivors of Rwandan Genocide Learn From Ethiopian Israelis
By Eric Silver
February 5, 2007
The Jerusalem Report
Fifteen young Ethiopian Jews are training to use their own experience as displaced Africans successfully absorbed into Israeli society to help rehabilitate some of the 1.2 million orphans of the Rwandan genocide. In 1994, members of the dominant Hutu community in the former Belgian colony massacred more than 800,000 of the minority Tutsi.
The 15 are among nearly 2,000 Ethiopians who have graduated since 1981 from Yemin Orde, an innovative youth village in western Galilee that houses more than 500 immigrant and at-risk children. Chaim Peri, Yemin Orde’s veteran principal, told The Report, “Their return to Africa on a life-saving mission is significant not only in itself, but for what it does for their selfesteem.”
The Ethiopian Israelis will go to Rwanda as mentors to a Rwandan charity which is setting up a village, modeled on Yemin Orde, in the central African state. Ten Rwandan educators and social workers completed an intensive week of workshops at Yemin Orde in December.
Isachar Mekonen, who immigrated to Israel with his parents as a 6-year-old in 1972 and served as a major in the paratroops, will lead the Israeli mission. “When you feel good,” he said, “when you feel strong, you can make another people feel strong. I feel I can help the kids who went through the genocide.”
Mekonen, now a father of three and service manager in the Israel Electric Corporation, graduated high school in 1985 after four years at Yemin Orde. The school aims to fill the scholastic gaps of underprivileged children, Peri explained, and give them what their environment cannot provide. “We focus on telling them how important they are, that they are not inferior, that they are destined for greatness.”
[To read more of this article, download the PDF.]
Ethiopian Israelis provide training for Rwandan youth village
By Stephanie Freid
December 25, 2006
Israel21c
Jean-Pierre Nkuranga was twenty in 1994 when he hid in the bushes outside his home in Rwanda and watched helplessly as Hutu militiamen ruthlessly attacked his family members. He lost four siblings and both parents in the carnage that was later known as Rwanda’s genocide.
“Children heads of household were common - some as young as ten. The kids would put together households of other kids and live in the streets or build tent camps with leaves and mud.” Nkuranga said.
The 1994 Rwandan genocide left over 800,000 Tutsis dead. One of the most devastating aftermaths of the tragedy was the approximately 1,200,000 children - almost 15% of the Rwandan population - who became instant orphans and lost their homes forever. Nkuranga became the parent to his four remaining siblings in the aftermath of the violence and he eventually took in six additional neighboring children.
Overcome by the enormity of loss, Nkuranga vowed to help build a future for the children orphaned in Rwanda. And today, he’s beginning to achieve that goal with the help of Israel.
Nkuranga was part of a ten-person delegation of Rwandan youth experts who recently spenta week at the Yemin Orde Youth Village south of Haifa in order to gain tools for opening the Agahozo-Shalom Village in Rwanda, which will be modeled after Yemin Orde.
[To read more of this article, download the PDF.]
Comments are off for this postRowley raises $35,000 for ASYV
Rowley’s Run for Rwanda was an amazing success. Not only did Rowley finish the Gobi March in 20th place — out of 171 competitors — he raised a staggering $35,000 for the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. Donations are still coming in.
Rowley’s overall running time was 38 hours, 13 minutes and 43 seconds.
His daily breakdown was as follows:
- Stage 1 - 5 hours, 47 seconds (35th place)
- Stage 2 - 4 hours, 43 minutes, 10 seconds (30th place, 32nd place overall)
- Stage 3 - 8 hours, 8 minutes (31st place overall)
- Stage 4 - 6 hours, 4 minutes, 20 seconds (20th place, 29th place overall)
- Stage 5 - 13 hours, 24 minutes (23rd place)
- Stage 6 - 53 minutes (16th place)
Donate
Donate to the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village
The Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village is an attempt to deal with the devastating aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. In addition to meeting physical, emotional and academic needs, ASYV’s philosophy is aimed at producing young adults who are committed to making their community and the world a better place.
Donate online
You can make an online donation via the JDC’s “Open Mailbox” secure online system.
Donate by mail
JDC: JDC-IDP: ASYV Rwanda
132 East 43rd Street
P.O. Box 530
New York, NY 10017Please make your personal check payable to: “JDC-IDP: ASYV Rwanda”.
Donate by phone
Comments are off for this postCredit card donations may also be made by phone. Please call 212-687-6200 to contribute.
Contact ASYV
Contact ASYV
You can contact us by emailing us at info@agahozo-shalom.org
or write to us at:
The Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village
P.O. Box 1884
Livingston, NJ 07039