Take a walk in my shoes: Home Visits

ASYV closed for a 2-week summer vacation this past month and I spent my time traveling Rwanda and Uganda with one of my best friends from New York. We went gorilla trekking in the north, went on a 2-day safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda, and relaxed by Lake Bunyonyi on the southern border. Aside from seeing the most amazing animals and freaking out over the cuteness of baby gorillas, we also visited the homes of 3 girls in my ASYV family. One of my girls lives in a valley near Volcanoes National Park, home to Rwanda’s famous mountain gorillas. To get to her home we took bikes down a mountain- I had the time of my life (even as it flashed before my eyes). She, her 4 siblings and her father live in a tiny house with no electricity or running water. There is no health clinic close to their home and to get back to ASYV she walks 2 hours up the mountain to avoid paying the 700RWF (about $1) for a bike.

After our trip to Uganda, we visited another 2 students who both live in Kigali. One of them made me a huge meal (after I had just eaten lunch) of my favorite Rwandan foods aka sweet potatoes and fruit. She and her 2 older brothers live in a very small house near the airport. Her brothers work extremely hard to support their sister and they could not be more proud of her outstanding work in the village. My other girl lives in a nicer house with her mother and 3 siblings. I was confused about her situation until I learned that when her father passed away a few years ago, her mom became sick and could not work. They do not have enough money to pay for the house so their debt is increasing substantially and it is unclear what will happen when it cannot be paid back.

I have been to many poverty-stricken areas in Nepal and other areas of Rwanda but to see these girls that I care for so much in their real homes shocked in me in a way I had never imagined. At the village it’s easy to forget where these students come from. They are given clothing, food, beds, and bathrooms…. anything they could need. It is easy to forget that the 500 students who live at ASYV are among the MOST vulnerable in Rwanda. What is vulnerability and how are these students chosen?

During the first term, ASYV receives a list of the most vulnerable orphans in the 30 districts of Rwanda. Mayors, teachers, priests, and other community leaders compile these lists, which are then filtered through the Ministry of Education. The ASYV staff reads the biographies and selects 10 students from each district to interview (300 in total). Academic achievement is not taken into account- all of the potential students need to have finished Senior 3 (about 8th grade) but their marks are irrelevant. Starting in May, selected ASYV staff head out into the far reaches of Rwanda to interview the 300 students. The goal of the interviews is to piece together the story of each orphan in order to judge their vulnerability. There is no scale on which vulnerability is measured- it is up to the ASYV staff to share the story of each teenager and decide as a team who should come to the village. I spoke with some of the staff and they said that the process is emotionally and physically draining. Many of their meetings end with everyone in tears as they talk about the terrible things they have seen. Only 3 or 4 students are chosen from each district so they are literally comparing the candidates to one another. “Vulnerability” can be girl from an extremely poor rural area living in horrible conditions who does not know where her next meal will come from. “Vulnerability” can be a boy from Kigali whose parents were killed in the genocide and now lives in a nice home with another family but is not loved or given the attention he deserves.

These are the students who make up ASYV and these are the girls whom I have come to love so much over the year. They have suffered in ways I can’t imagine and had no hope for a future. Unfortunately people in these situations are defined by their vulnerability and poverty but this experience has reinforced the message that they are people just like you and me.