By Martin Tindiwensi; Edited by Leanna Cappiello
Sandrine is a shy girl. She’s among the most devoted senior students, and often wears a serious expression. Her favourite pastime is reading, which she likes to do with her best friend, Mary Grace.
In Sandrine’s home country, French was the first primary language, until the Rwandan government made an abrupt shift to English after 1994. Not only did this mean a steep learning curve for students, but it also meant that the schoolwide reading materials become obsolete.
There were a few books around, but not enough for each student, so children sat in groups to share a copy. The school library was looking pretty bare too. “Getting a book in the library was a problem because you would always findthem being used by other students,” explains Sandrine.
Supply a classroom and help children flourish in school.
A donation of books was delivered by World Vision. Coming from a low-income background, Sandrine saw the new books as a huge blessing.
Sandrine says that the availability of the new textbooks has been helping her and her classmates study comfortably. “They have greatly helped us improve our speaking and writing skills. We use them three times a week,” she says.
Now, Sandrine is better equipped to pursue her studies. “We are happy to see that they all have the same opportunity and we are optimistic that the performance will continue improving,” says the head teacher.