Today was the first of three leadership training days, where we reviewed Agahozo Shalom's Mission, Core Values and the their pillars. It was an entire day of 17 people sitting together in a room about the size of a small conference room and it was really productive. Some of my favorites from the discussion are: (Note: the ASYV website would be the best place for the actual mission, etc.)
• Agahozo Shalom is to restore the rhythm of life.
• Getting kids from a hopeless situation into a hopeful situation.
• Providing a platform for a child to start having a dream, to start believing in a dream, to work towards living their dream.
One of the other things I realized is this is not a school - it is a community. A place where kids who have never had someone to call Mother now have a mother, where kids who didn't know when or if they were going to eat now get three meals a day, where kids who were prime targets for the evils of the world now had a safe place where people cared about them. And in addition, there is a school here.
Everyone is really engaged in what they are doing here, you need that in a village raising orphans.
We also had an opportunity to see a Tikkun Olam ceremony. The students have to do Tikkun Olam - "repairing the world", via social action, community service, social justice, - and they get to pick the project. These kids chose to build a house for an old woman nearby. Every time I heard them call her Old Woman I thought "How rude. Couldn't they have even learned her name? They are building a house for her, for goodness sakes!" ;) I realized that there must be a cultural reason so I asked someone - I am told it is not appropriate to call a married woman by her name (I think this only applies to women above a certain age but I am not sure) and calling her Old Woman is a complement, a sign of respect.
The government mandated that all thatched roof houses will be torn down, but they are not giving people new houses, they must rebuild their own. The problem with that is not everyone can afford to build a new house. This old woman was living in a thatched house, she is sick and has no money. Every 6 months or so she has to beg people to come and fix her roof because it is raining on her. Today they gave her the keys and she was able to move into her new home. These kids worked over a period of 2 months, at 3 hours a week and were able to do an amazing thing, they used their time to have an incredible impact on someone's life. This is part of what the village is about - healing yourself, and doing good for your community. It is an amazing thing that these kids did.
The above picture shows the old woman’s old house on the left and the new house that the Agahozo Shalom kids built on the right.
This is the old woman saying thank you for her house and behind her are the kids who helped build the house.
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