Thursday, May 24, 2012

Furthering Education in Rwanda





Students at Nyakabanda School


Following a spring filled with mission conferences, an office move to larger premises and project development/approvals for the rest of the year and into the future, I am ready to strike out with a team overseas once again.

And so on May 31st I will lead a brand new project team to Rwanda to serve The Wellspring Foundation for Education as they seek design assistance for a new administration, teaching and guesthouse facility to complement their existing Wellspring Academy school.

Teachers working together
This will be my third trip into Rwanda and it’s wonderful to go to this beautiful country where I now have friends and where I know amazing ministry is taking place.

The groups eMi has partnered with in Rwanda seek to be locally sustainable by building capacity within the local people to own the work (i.e. the trained become trainers), create value (i.e. fostering employable skills) and be locally integrated (i.e. plugged into the local business, government or education system).  The Wellspring Foundation for Education is not only about educating children, they are providing training for teachers throughout the Rwandan education system.

The Wellspring Academy
Wellspring Academy in Kigali, Rwanda
Our team will include five volunteers from Canada; two civil engineers and a structural engineer from Calgary, an eMi Canada civil engineer intern (UBC Okanagan) and a Nigerian architect who now lives in Calgary.

It will also include five volunteers from the US; a civil engineer/master planner from New York, an electrical engineer from Seattle, a graduate architecture student (Virginia Tech), an eMi Canada architectural intern (Texas A&M) and a construction manager who is currently an eMi Long Term Volunteer in our eMi East Africa office in Uganda.

Quite a diverse group!  I’m really forward to experiencing how the Lord will knit this group of strangers into a unified team.

Wellspring Program Team
Teachers trained at the Wellspring Academy

Want to learn a little more about what we will be doing?  A write-up for the project is on our website here: Project 10031.

Here is a link to the ministry's website: The Wellspring Foundation for Education.

At the end of the project I will travel with a part of the team overland to Kampala, Uganda to visit and deliver survey equipment to the eMi East Africa office.  The donated survey gear will aid in the survey practicum (eMi Canada Project 10030) to be run in July by Patrick Cochrane, a member of the eMi Canada Board of Trustees.

Please keep us in prayer as we travel in the air and on the ground and also remember my family and the families of each of our group of eleven as we are away for this project.