The Founders
 Monica Rwamunahe  Betty Rwamunahe  Connie Miranda  Mama Edisa Rwamunahe |
 We wanted a school that could be a home to the students- a center of education where our children, parents, relatives, neighbors could feel a sense of security, trust, belonging and pride, a sense of culture and a sense of history. We wanted a school that could parent the children- after their parents left them in our custody.The vision to build the school on a village model is the brain child of three sisters and their mother: Monica Rwamunahe, Betty Rwamunahe, Connie Miranda and our mother, Edisa Rwamunahe. We come from a family of twelve but our father had left the family some land, and his wish and will was that we could develop the land but we could not sell it. This was probably an easier decision to make than dividing the land into twelve children! To fulfill our father's wish, we consulted with the village elders to help us decide and assess the most pressing needs of the village. Overwhelmingly and by consensus, a school was rated the highest priority. The three sisters were residents of the United States at the time and had lived there for many years. Frustrated by the never-ending barrage of tragic stories about Africa subjected to the world, we very much wanted to return home and to make a difference. Pulling together our meager life savings, we decided to build a school for our village and committed to return home to run it ourselves. Money was very short and the dream and goals set often seemed to be unreachable. The challenge at times was overwhelming especially as the building budgets seemed out of control from what financial allocations we had naively envisioned.  Short on cash and alone; we still pushed ahead with our dream. While we toiled hard in America, our mother was busy supervising the construction of the school since we could not afford to hire anyone else. By the summer of 2005, the school was near completion. By the fall of 2005, Monica and Betty were busy packing and about ready to return home, determined but uncertain about the future. They were leaving the comfort of the American life, and a country they had called home for over a decade and moving to a village with no electricity or running water. Many skeptics back home ridiculed the idea of two women leaving the comfort life of a developed country to reside in an African village, calling it both highly unrealistic and a temporary whim. We are happy to say that Betty left in November 2004 and Monica joined her in July 2005. Betty and Monica live with our mother and run the school. They say they would not trade the life they lead and the pleasure of taking care of the children! Their sister Connie however, remains in the United States and resides in North Las Vegas, NV.We are very happy and proud of what the school has achieved so far. Educating and upgrading our village is the main focus of our work. |
