Summer Plans

To travel to the Netherlands with a side trip to Rwanda 

This summer my husband Robin and I are planning to go to the Netherlands for our daughter's wedding. We decided to combine this with a trip to Rwanda.

We are joining Grace Rwanda to conduct librarian training for approximately 30 librarians in Rwanda.

Grace Rwanda (GR) is a local organization that promotes literacy in this small African country. The organization was founded by Rwandan Tutsi Genocide survivors Elizabeth Johnson & Marie-Louise Kaligirwa. 

Rwanda is a country with no reading culture, Rwandans learn through story telling guca imigani Books are scarce in Rwanda, and expensive. Grace Rwanda's goal is to bring literacy to Rwanda's youth (who make up half of the population), to help them succeed in rebuilding their country.   Grace Rwanda's goal is to open 22 community libraries (7 completed, planning to complete 3 more this year and 5 next year) GR has also provided mini-libraries to schools and they host literacy outreach events in rural and urban areas to promote a reading culture. These literacy events have been non-existent in Rwanda, for example at some events

A child will get to experience holding a book

for the very first time.

Rwanda Librarian Training team 

includes Mary Jo Ohl, a retired teacher librarian, two library technicians--Erica Taylor and I. My husband who will help wherever he can (he is a great help with computer related stuff, he is a handyman and of course he looks forward to reading One Eyed Jake to the kids!). 

 We plan to train 30 employees/volunteers of the 22+ libraries that Grace Rwanda has set up. This training will benefit the communities that the libraries serve.

Grace Rwanda with the help of Rotary has shipped over containers of donated books and they recently partnered with Book Aid International who will ship containers of brand new books from the United Kingdom. BAI will also share their library training materials with our team. 

What we need: 

We aim to raise $5000 CDN to facilitate the training seminar. The trainee librarians work as volunteers or receive $50 per month for their wages. 

We plan to cover the cost of the trainees to travel  to Kigali, their lodging food and training materials. 

To help with these costs, please donate to:

Go Fund Me

 

 For Canadian donations 

Donate online at Grace Rwanda Donate

To donate by mail send cheque to:

Grace Rwanda Society

#13 – 19889 96 Avenue, Suite #182

Langley, BC V1M3C7

Canada

 (please designate that the funds are for the Rwanda Library Training)

We are also looking for library cataloging supplies

Thank you for reading this blog post. We are excited about making a difference to literacy in Rwanda.