Dear Supporters,
As the year draws to a close, I think I can safely say that 2020 is a year that many of us will remember for a long time. Back in early spring, Umubano Academy was buzzing with international visitors - including APIE staff, volunteers and UK schoolchildren - and we were all looking forward to an exciting school year ahead. Coronavirus was still nothing more than the latest health scare in another part of the world and we were busy making plans for Umubano's contribution to CHOGM 2020 - the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which was due to be held in Rwanda for the first time. Within a few weeks, several APIE staff had hurriedly returned to their home countries before the sudden closure of Kigali airport; Umubano Academy had closed along with all schools in Rwanda; our plans to deliver training to teachers across the country were thrown up in the air; and CHOGM 2020 was cancelled.
The challenges were huge: APIE's staff was now a diaspora working from 4 different countries; in-person teacher training became impossible because of the national Rwanda lockdown; Umubano pupils were facing the prospect of months of home learning, with little or no access to the internet; our teachers lost their salaries overnight; and all our plans for fundraising events had to be cancelled. But with our usual determination, team spirit and ingenuity, we quickly supported Umubano to set up online learning via WhatsApp, and the US Friends of APIE sourced technology and funds to help families without smart phones. We immediately started fundraising for our Hardship Fund to support teachers and the poorest families in the school community, and made rapid progress towards our £24,000 target thanks to the incredible generosity of donors in the UK and US. Amazingly, teachers across Rwanda were also able to continue their professional development thanks to our much-praised eLearning training package.
Finally, after almost 9 months of home learning, Umubano Academy has now opened its doors to children once again, and we are working closely with the school's leadership team to ensure that pupils and staff are safe. Thanks to a generous £1500 donation from the Victoria League to buy new classroom materials the children will have some great new resources for creative learning - a welcome change for them after so many months stuck at home. We've had more good news in the form of a new grant from the British and Foreign School Society to support our Education for Peace project. And we've been absolutely blown away by the money raised for APIE at a virtual crowdfunder with The Funding Network when a whopping £16,000 was raised to support our work to give children in Rwanda a high quality education. We're also really excited to be taking part in this year's Big Give Christmas Challenge in the first week of December when all donations to the campaign will be doubled by match funding - we hope you will consider making a donation to give a child in one of the poorest countries in the world the gift of quality education for Christmas.
Despite the many challenges that remain, we're really hopeful that 2021 will be full of possibilities and partnerships that will support us in transforming education in Rwanda. Thank you for the amazing support you've shown us this year, and I wish you and your families every happiness in 2021.
Amy Barnecutt, APIE CEO
