Health Poverty Action, working in partnership with Future First Global, has successfully launched alumni activities at 14 schools across Rwanda.
The project has established committees made up of former students in order to tackle absenteeism, lateness, financial disadvantage and other factors holding back students educational progress.
Within weeks of the project launch there have already been over 20 village meetings, as well as various mentoring talks, house visits and clubs established.
Impressively, financial commitments have already been made to the benefit of over 80 pupils and nearly 20 young people have been encouraged to return to school.
In the coming months, the project aims to encourage more young people back into education, improve the punctuality and attainment of existing students, and raise further funds for uniforms, fees, and in-school food.
Hannah White, Project Lead for Future First Global, says:
“This project has been incredibly successful so far, thanks to a strong partnership between Future First Global and Health Poverty Action. We’re excited to see broad community ownership around these committees, which will ensure a greater impact and long-lasting sustainability past the end of our involvement in the project.”
Innocent Rwahama, Technical Officer for Health Poverty Action, says:
“The interesting aspect of this project is that the Alumni are now involved in very different activities and contexts: some are employed in Government offices, some in different forms of business, in agriculture; some are leaders at community level. Most of them became a sort of role model for students in school and an inspiration for them to continue actively in their studies.
“In the past, similar experiences were involving only people who reached a certain level of success and financial power. Now these focal people (Alumni) are from all sections of society. Sometimes, even a person who just graduated and is maybe still seeking for job opportunities can sensitize and inspire students in difficulty or drop out to go back and invest in their studies and in their future.”
The project is set to continue throughout 2018 and is expected to be completed by March 2020. After which, the alumni committees and schools will be ready to continue activities without external support.