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 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 10017

Please make your personal check payable to: “JDC-IDP: ASYV Rwanda”.

Donate by phone

Credit card donations may also be made by phone. Please call 212-687-6200 to contribute.

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

coming soon….

Genocide in Rwanda

Nearly one million people were murdered in 100 days in 1994. Hundreds of thousands of survivors became traumatized and the country was left in ruins. As a direct aftermath of the genocide, over 1.2 million children remain orphaned today — forever robbed of their parents, communities, homes, and any hope for a viable future.

Life disrupted…Life restored

The Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) aims to create a safe and structured community for orphaned children in Rwanda. A place where these traumatized youth can “dry their tears” (Agahozo) and “live in peace” (Shalom).

Click on the video to play.

Within this environment, the “rhythm of life” will be restored: a child rises from his/her bed in the morning, eats breakfast with siblings and “parents,” walks to school and back home in the afternoon.

The result is healthy adults who are not only able to care for themselves and their families, but who are committed to making their community and the world a better place.

You can help build a village!

This unbelievable and rare global movement involves everyday people who are coming together to bring hope to the children in Rwanda. Rally for Rowley is supporting something unbelievable: A man crossing the Gobi Desert in China. For seven days, Rowley will run the equivalent of one marathon per day, on the last day he runs two marathons. He is raising funds for the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village’s (ASYV).

Rowley is from England, works in Hong Kong for a company headquartered New York. His friends all around the world will be supporting him by wearing a different colored sock for each of the seven days of his race, Rowley will be wearing the same colored sock as his supporters each day. It will be our way of “walking along with Rowley” to support Rwanda.

Often, when you see terrible news on TV, you feel helpless because there is not a lot you can do to help. You probably felt this way when the genocide was happening in Rwanda. Now you can make a difference by joining this global effort. You too can be part of this movement!

Make your pledge today by visiting www.firstgiving.com/rowleysgobitrek. All donations will be sent through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Inc. (AJJDC) and distributed directly to the ASYV. The AJJDC is a registered charity and all donations are 100% tax deductible.

January - April 2007
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Purchase of the 58.7 Ha piece of land where ASYV is about to be built
• Completion of the Inception phase in building process
• Opening of JDC-ASYV bank accounts in Rwanda (Dollar & local currency)
• Project’s Website and informational package in development
• ASYV short movie completed
• Important Educational documents gathered from Rwandan Ministry of Education
• Training Program and related budget established for Ethiopian Israelis
• Development of Training Program and related budget for ASYV staff in Mediated Learning Experience
• Fundraising Master Plan in Development
• Major funding commitment from Corporation
• Project and Founder honored by association of philanthropists

[To read more of this article, download the PDF.]

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.]