Dear Supporters,
It is a real pleasure to welcome you to our Spring newsletter; I hope you’ll enjoy hearing about some of our exciting ventures. The opening months of 2023 have been full of activity, with a number of wonderful, new projects for APIE and Umubano Academy. Thanks to our partners and supporters in Rwanda, the UK and beyond we have been able to carry out school improvement activities, pilot innovative programmes in inclusion, Social and Emotional Learning and academic progress tracking and continue to ensure that all the students at Umubano Academy have access to outstanding learning opportunities. The school improvement projects at Umubano Academy have included the creation of a science teaching room, with all the necessary fixtures and fittings including state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, resurfacing of the volleyball and basketball courts, improvements to the dining facilities to support the whole-school feeding programme, as required by the Ministry of Education, and a wonderful, purpose-built Girls’ Room! The latter is a requirement in all schools in Rwanda to provide a safe and comfortable place for girls to make use of whenever they have the need. APIE has recently secured funding to develop the strategies in our Education for Positive Peace course further, adding to and updating the content, to develop a course called Ready to Learn which we will implement in refugee camps in Rwanda. We are all energised and very much looking forward to this new opportunity to support more teachers to improve their practice, building on the successes of Education for Positive Peace and making classrooms safe, engaging and stimulating environments for as many children as possible. At the same time, we will continue to promote Education for Positive Peace in the Teacher Training Colleges and model schools around the country, throughout the coming year, to ensure our course reaches the new cohorts of student teachers and the new recruits to our partner schools. The APIE team in Rwanda and the UK have been enthusiastically partnering with Umubano Academy in a variety of ways including designing and delivering Continuous Professional Development sessions and introducing new ways to ensure the teachers can deliver gender-responsive, inclusive educational opportunities. We hope you enjoy reading our Spring Newsletter and we are really looking forward to sharing more updates throughout the rest of the year - please follow us on social media channels for more news as it happens! Best wishes, Irene
APIE CEO |
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Girls' Room Thanks to the Merriman Charitable Foundation, our partner school, Umubano Academy, has been able to construct a new Girls’ Room. Due to stigmas and difficulties in accessing menstrual hygiene products, many girls miss school when they are menstruating. The Girls’ Room provides a private, fully equipped area which ensures that girls have a safe, hygienic and dignified space to receive support during this time. Thank you Merriman Charitable Foundation for helping us to ensure that girls don't miss out on their right to an education 📖 |
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Science Room The Merriman Charitable Foundation has also generously funded to transform a classroom at Umubano Academy into a 'science room' for 320 students to use. This fully equipped space will further improve the quality of education for students at Umubano Academy, enabling them to access the entire science curriculum and providing them with more future prospects.
Investment in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics) subjects is a priority in Rwanda due to its essential role in finding solutions to global issues identified in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We can't wait to see what our future scientists achieve! 🥼 |
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Education for Positive Peace Thanks to the Lef Pillon Trust, we are able to continue supporting teacher training colleges around the country engaging in our Education for Positive Peace course. Later this year, APIE will host four cluster workshops for Education for Positive Peace champions from each school whilst continuing to gather monitoring, evaluation and learning data to find ways to increase the course's impact. By maintaining engagement with beneficiaries of the course, we hope to continue spreading the values of Education for Peace across the country! 🌍 |
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Ready to Learn APIE is looking forward to launching our brand new project, Ready to Learn, a teacher professional development project this month. This project will be delivered in refugee camps in Rwanda and will develop teachers' knowledge and practices by building strategies and skills to develop students' Social and Emotional Learning. In turn, this project will promote inclusive classrooms and positive behaviour management. This new project will run for 2 years and will include a Training of Trainers component, to enable field trainers working regularly in the camps to cascade the course to all phases in all camps across Rwanda. |
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Meet Elena APIE is thrilled to introduce our new International School Ambassador! Seung Eun Lee (Elena) is a senior attending Cheongshim International Academy in South Korea. She is the passionate founder and president of We Learn to Share, a youth-led international NGO that aims to bridge the education gap. With over 70 dedicated youth members from 13 countries and 35 schools, she has successfully created a global community of changemakers. Seung Eun is also a Korean traditional dancer, YouTuber, activist, philanthropist, and polymath. Her interests span across learning new foreign languages, reading novels, travelling, and spending quality time with friends and family. |
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In her role as the International Schools Ambassador for APIE, Seung Eun has ambitious plans to collaborate with We Learn to Share members and carry out fundraising activities in schools worldwide, including Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. She envisions selling products and partnering with Umubano Academy (UA) students to showcase their art crafts. |
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Supporting scholarship children's access to education A huge thank you to The Souter Charitable Trust who donated £3000 towards four secondary scholarship places. This generous donation contributes to breaking cycles of poverty in Rwanda by opening up possibilities to children and their families through the provision of quality education. Thanks to their kindness and generosity, scholarship students like John, can receive the support, resources and equipment they need to access quality education and achieve success. |
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Easy Fundraising We are excited to announce our new partnership with easyfundraising.org.uk. You can raise FREE donations for A Partner In Education EVERY time you shop online. There is also a handy extension which you can add to your browser. Just shop as normal online, and the Easyfundraising extension will pop up to let you know which sites provide a donation. Donate easily in one quick tap! Over 7,000 brands are signed up to donate, including all the big names like John Lewis & Partners, BT, Expedia, Argos, ASOS, Just Eat, Uswitch and many more! Click here to learn more. |
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Community Fundraising Are you part of a school or community group?
As a small charity, we rely on your support to provide quality education to children across Rwanda. Whether its a bake sale, sponsored walk or a school pyjama day , every fundraising event has a huge impact. Head to our Just Giving page to make your very own fundraising event or get in touch with Beth at beth@apartnerineducation.org. We'd love to discuss your ideas! |
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Together, we can transform education 🎓🌍 |
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As always, we love to get feedback and hear ideas. If there is anything you want to let us know then please get in touch. |
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