ISRAEL: Youth village for orphans based on Israeli educational model is soon to be built in Rwanda

Record ID: 285250

  • Title: ISRAEL: Youth village for orphans based on Israeli educational model is soon to be built in Rwanda
  • Date: 1st February 2007
  • Summary: RWANDANS WALKING IN VILLAGE YARD APARTMENT BUILDING FOR YOUTH IN VILLAGE ETHIOPIAN-ISRAELI YOUTH ON BALCONY HAIM PERRY, DIRECTOR OF YEMIN ORDE YOUTH VILLAGE STANDING IN YARD (SOUNDBITE) (English) HAIM PERRY, DIRECTOR OF YEMIN ORDE YOUTH VILLAGE, SAYING: "The idea here is wholesomeness, coherence, a community, and not just a boarding school, not a storage of children, survival of children, but really making the difference for them. And this is something we have learned from the old youth Aliya (Jewish immigration to Israel) movement which was established in this country in the aftermath of the Holocaust and when the Rwandan people come here and they see and absorb it and they see how relevant it is, it makes us happy." TWO RWANDAN DELEGATES WALKING IN VILLAGE ROAD (SOUNDBITE) (English) SIFA NSENGIMANA, COORDINATOR OF AGAHOZO-SHALOM YOUTH VILLAGE PROJECT IN RWANDA, SAYING: "The Yemin Orde philosophy in general is very compatible with the Rwandan tradition, the Rwandan culture, the Rwandan social life. And the most outstanding one is the idea of "Tikun Halev" and "Tikun Olam", the idea of heeling the self and heeling the world and giving to community being part of a larger reality than one self and that is something that will resonate with Rwandans." (SOUNDBITE) (English) SIFA NSENGIMANA, COORDINATOR OF AGAHOZO-SHALOM YOUTH VILLAGE PROJECT IN RWANDA, SAYING: "It is a revolution, honestly. I don't think I exaggerate by saying that." (SOUNDBITE) (English) SIFA NSENGIMANA, COORDINATOR OF AGAHOZO-SHALOM YOUTH VILLAGE PROJECT IN RWANDA, SAYING: "Many youth villages, orphanages, you name it, are addressing immediate needs - we give you food, we give you shelter, we might put you through school. But when you are 18 you are on your own, you have no family, nothing to look back to. So the idea of recreating unity between past and future and heeling the person as a whole and then on top of that giving them the formal education, the high school, it is incredible. That what really is highlighted, that is what everyone is speaking on in Rwanda especially."
  • Embargoed: 16th February 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA1CWWTA2RZULEHGQ989AJE3JNG
  • Story Text: Youth village for orphans based on Israeli educational model is soon to be built in Rwanda. A new Rwandan village, based on an Israeli model established after the Holocaust, is poised to change the lives of orphans in the genocide-ravaged African country.
    The Agahozo-Shalom youth village for war orphans, initiated by an American philanthropist, is due to open next year in the area of Rwamagana, some 50 kilometres from Kigali.
    The ground-breaking community will be based on the model of Yemin Orde, a youth village in Israel which was established in 1953 to accommodate orphans and immigrant children after the Holocaust.
    Today, the Israeli village is home to some 500 children, aged between five and 19, who hail from 22 countries. Almost half of the immigrants are Ethiopians, some of whom were orphaned during their families' efforts to reach Israel.
    Recently a group of ten Rwandan social experts, who worked with the victims of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, visited Yemin Orde to learn about the philosophy of the village and gain knowledge before opening their own village.
    They also met Ethiopian-Israeli graduates who shared their experience of growing up in the Israeli village.
    Jean-Pierre Nkuranga, the director of the Agahozo-Shalom Village, believes the orphans he is working with could have a better life after surviving the horrors of a genocide.
    "I was one of those who have gone through hell pretty much and I would not say that it destroyed me. I was able to survive. I was able to go through school. I had benefactors who helped me and I survived and I now work with these orphans myself and I believe that my children, the orphans, will also grow up to be successful," he said.
    Jean-Pierre, who is a Tutsi, was 20 years old when Hutu militia killed his parents and four siblings. He was responsible for his and other four siblings who survived and for many years the head of a household which included other six child orphans.
    Haim Perry, the founder and director of Yemin Orde, which sits on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean, said the goal of his youth village was inclusion and well being, to help the residents overcome deep trauma and abandonment.
    "The idea here is wholesomeness, coherence, a community, and not just a boarding school, not a storage of children, or survival of children, but really making the difference for them," he said.
    "This is something we have learned from the old youth Aliya (Jewish immigration to Israel) movement which was established in this country in the aftermath of the Holocaust and when the Rwandan people come here and they see and absorb it and they see how relevant it is it makes us happy," Perry said.
    It is expected that the Rwandan village will ultimately be staffed and populated by Rwandans, with the Rwandan experts deciding how to adapt the Israeli model to their reality.
    "The Yemin Orde philosophy in general is very compatible with the Rwandan tradition, the Rwandan culture, the Rwandan social life," says Sifa Nsengimana, coordinator of the Agahozo-Shalom youth village project.
    She says she considers the Israeli model "a revolution".
    "The idea of recreating unity between past and future and heeling the person as a whole and then on top of that giving them the formal education, the high school, it is incredible," Nsengimana said.
    The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that there are more than one million orphans in Rwanda, most of whom lost their parents in the genocide.
    Some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered during 100 days of killing that began on April 6, 1994. Soldiers of the then Hutu-led government and their ethnic militia allies were accused of orchestrating the carnage.
    The killings ended only after Tutsi rebels led by current President Paul Kagame seized control of the country and triggered an exodus of more than 2 million Hutus.
    As well as genocide, a number of Rwandan children have also been orphaned by the spread of HIV/AIDS.
    The concept for the Agahozo-Shalom youth village was initiated by Anne Heyman, an American lawyer and a mother of three from New York, who decided she wanted to do something after learning about the devastation of the genocide.
    Heyman, who had met Perry in Israel, has paid repeated visits to Rwanda to try to make her dream a reality.
    She hopes the youth village will eventually serve as a residential high school for some 500 Rwandan children.
    "It is going to be built by Rwandans, the architect, the builder, they are all Rwandans. Built by Rwandans in Rwanda for Rwandans and staffed by Rwandans," Heyman said.
    "Our schedule for opening the doors is September 2008 and I think we are going to do it," she said with a smile.
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