AGAHOZO-SHALOM YOUTH VILLAGE INC
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Programs and results
What we aim to solve
We were founded in response to the orphan crisis that arose in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. While survivors of the 1994 Genocide have since aged out of our program, many young people in Rwanda still face significant challenges. For example, due to poverty, household disruption, and other factors, only 21% of all Rwandan youth and 9% of youth living in low-income households are expected to graduate from secondary school. We are committed to helping Rwanda's most vulnerable youth overcome these challenges. Among our 130 current first-year students, for example, 65% come from households living in poverty, 66% have lost one or both parents, and 6% are refugees fleeing violence in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. About 90% of our students have displayed symptoms of complex developmental trauma. We aim to provide our students with the care and education they need to heal and thrive.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Formal Education
We provide over 500 orphaned and vulnerable youth between the ages of 14 and 22 with one of Rwanda's best secondary school educations. First-year students benefit from our Enrichment Year, an additional school year not offered by other schools in Rwanda that builds foundational skills in English, computer literacy, math, and science. This ensures our students are ready for an interactive classroom environment. Second-, third-, and fourth-year students study one of several subject combinations, including, for example, physics-chemistry-biology and history-economics-geography. Approved by the Ministry of Education, these combinations prepare students for the national exam and higher education. All students also participate in Kinyarwanda, English, math, and entrepreneurship classes. Formal Education also includes our Career Resources Center (CRC), which prepares students for post-graduation pathways in higher education, the workplace, and entrepreneurship.
Life Enrichment Applied Programs (LEAP)
LEAP encourages healing and personal growth by enabling our students to explore newfound passions in athletics, science, and the arts, as well as leadership and community service opportunities. Enrichment programs like football (soccer), basketball, cycling, karate, visual art, music, and photography and videography invite students to have fun while cultivating their talents. Students are also welcome to participate in extracurricular mechanics, electronics, and design labs in our campus Science Center, and to launch their own original, hands-on science and technology projects. Student-led clubs and community service projects also encourage young people to take on tangible challenges and become partners in community development. Together, these activities build student confidence by showing our kids that they have the potential to make a positive difference.
Healthy Living
Our Healthy Living Department safeguards student health and well-being by providing primary medical care and the life skills education our students need to make healthy and informed decisions. Life skills classes and campaigns provide our students with an evidence-based education in subjects like mental health, sexual and reproductive health, communicable and noncommunicable disease, vaccines and how they work, proper nutrition, and the importance of preventive medicine.
Parental Wholeness
Parental Wholeness maintains a loving home life for our students, providing the warm and welcoming family environment they need to thrive. Staff caregivers known as family mamas live with groups of about 20 students, known as student families, for the duration of their time at ASYV. Together, these student families and their family mamas build bonds that last a lifetime. Family mamas also work with a team of social workers to provide students with emotional and practical care. Our social workers and family mamas monitor students' mental health and offer appropriate support, including one-on-one and group counseling for students in need.
Educational Resilience Program (ERP)
The Educational Resilience Program (ERP), our first initiative with national reach, is training secondary school teachers from across Rwanda in digital teaching technologies, student-centered teaching methodology, and life skills education topics like sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and gender equity. Since 2021, the ERP has trained 500 teachers from 171 schools and 152 school leaders from 152 schools. Through peer-to-peer training, participating teachers will share what they have learned with their colleagues. As of 2023, ERP trained teachers have reached at least 1,920 additional teachers through peer-to-peer training. The ERP will also encourage participating teachers to form student-led life skills clubs at their schools, giving their students a voice in gender equity and sexual and reproductive health education. We expect the ERP to positively impact up to 75,000 students in Rwanda by the end of the 2023-2024 school year.
Where we work
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Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Percentage of students who pass the advanced-level national exam.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Young adults, Adolescents, Orphans, Extremely poor people, Refugees and displaced people
Related Program
Formal Education
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
The national exam is administered to all students graduating from upper-secondary school in Rwanda. Please note that the national exam was not administered in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Number of students enrolled
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Young adults, Adolescents, Orphans, Extremely poor people, Refugees and displaced people
Related Program
Formal Education
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
We reach about 500 students each school year. In September 2020, we adopted a September - July school calendar. As a result, we currently reach about 620 students each calendar year.
Percentage of alumni accessing tertiary education or employment within two years of graduation.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Young adults, Adolescents, Orphans, Extremely poor people, Refugees and displaced people
Related Program
Formal Education
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
The Classes of 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021 are the most recent classes that are more than two years post-graduation. Please note we had no graduating Class of 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
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Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
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Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our primary goal is to heal and empower vulnerable Rwandan youth, equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to achieve their academic and professional goals and work towards a brighter future for themselves and their communities. To achieve this, we provide over 500 at-risk young people with medical and mental health services, a student-centered secondary school education, rewarding extracurricular and community service activities, and a loving living environment on a safe and supportive campus in Rwanda's Eastern Province. Recognizing that girls in Rwanda are at elevated risk of leaving school before graduating, especially in rural areas, 62% of our students are girls, and we offer gender equity clubs and other programming aimed at inspiring girls to dream big and take on leadership roles. We provide this programming every school year, in accordance with the Rwandan Ministry of Education's secondary school calendar. Providing these services, and the resources our students need to heal and grow, will enable our alumni to become confident and compassionate community leaders.
Seeking to extend our impact beyond the boundaries of our campus, we also aim to serve as a model of quality and effectiveness for other organizations and institutions working on behalf of vulnerable, marginalized, and refugee youth. By sharing our knowledge and experience with other Rwandan secondary schools and other partners in Rwanda and around the world, we strive to help the international community support young people recovering from traumatic events like armed conflict, genocide, and forced displacement. We also aim to create sustainable change in the Rwandan education system, enabling the widespread adoption of student-centered teaching methods and digital teaching technology to encourage greater classroom participation, cultivate critical thinking skills, and strengthen learning outcomes.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
To empower our students, we employ a careful recruitment strategy and four program strategies: Formal Education, Life Enrichment Applied Programs (LEAP), Healthy Living, and Parental Wholeness.
Recruitment Strategy: Students must demonstrate vulnerability to attend ASYV, with vulnerability defined according to criteria like parental loss, living under the poverty line, and exposure to abuse and domestic violence. We work with government and non-governmental organizations to identify eligible students. We then interview these candidates, assessing their need, resilience, and commitment to learning.
Formal Education delivers a secondary school experience, beginning with an additional school year known as an Enrichment Year. This Enrichment Year builds foundational skills in English, math, computer literacy, and science, setting the stage for future learning. Second-, third-, and fourth-year students study one of several academic combinations. Approved by the Ministry of Education, these combinations prepare our students for higher education. Entrepreneurship and career readiness programs also prepare our students for life after graduation.
LEAP includes extracurricular activities in science, athletics, and the arts, as well as clubs and community service. Artistic and athletic programs like volleyball and visual art help students build confidence and creativity, while clubs encourage students to explore their interests and develop leadership and teamwork skills. LEAP also includes our Science Center, where students participate in science and technology labs and develop original projects.
Healthy Living provides medical care and health education. The nurses and doctor in our Health and Wellness Center deliver medical services like malaria testing and treatment. Healthy Living also leads life skills classes and campaigns covering topics like health equity, health through a gendered lens, mental health, and sexual and reproductive health.
Parental Wholeness maintains a loving family environment on our campus. A team of social workers and live-in staff caregivers known as family mamas manage students' mental health. They help our students heal from trauma by providing counseling and ongoing emotional support.
Scaling Strategy: First, we have launched the Educational Resilience Program (ERP). The ERP is sharing aspects of our educational model with teachers across Rwanda and the Rwandan Ministry of Education, helping us achieve transformative change in the national education system. Second, to help us better serve as a model for other organizations working with youth recovering from societal-level trauma, we are currently working with a leading academic institution in the United States to conduct an impact assessment. This assessment will enable us to publish a monograph and a model kit explaining how our model works and how it can be replicated and adapted. We will also train other organizations in our approach using the model kit.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We operate on a campus near the city of Rwamagana, in Rwanda's Eastern Province. Staff members include 35 teachers and school administrators; one Science Center coordinator; one information technology coordinator, as well as a supporting IT officer and interns; four social workers; six nurses and other medical staff; 24 live-in caregivers known as family mamas, who are responsible for supervising our student residences and providing students with emotional and practical support; one student life director and one student life manager, who help guide extracurricular and student residence programming; and two enrichment program officers, who are responsible for coordinating extracurricular activities. The enrichment programs themselves are led by part-time trainers. We also maintain appropriate support staff, as well as the kitchen and farm staff required to feed over 500 students each day.
Facilities and equipment include 19 classrooms, three science labs, five computer labs, and a library at our Liquidnet Family High School; mechanics, electronics, and design labs at our Gelfand Family Science Center, which use makerspace equipment like a 3D printer and laser cutter to build creativity and hands-on technology skills; artistic enrichment programs at our Jeffrey A. Summit Music Center and Art Center; athletic enrichment programs at our football (soccer) fields and Majora Carter Basketball Courts; weekly talent shows and dramatic performances at our Lily Safra Amphitheater; medical and mental health services and health education at our Barry Segal Health and Wellness Center; and a kitchen and dining hall at our Edmond J. Safra Community Center.
We have also recently added a new facility known as the Intore Learning Community (ILC). Located adjacent to our campus, the ILC includes adaptable workshop spaces, a separate kitchen and dining facility, and rooms for up to 104 overnight guests. The ILC has significantly expanded our capacity to host international visitors, providing our students with an intercultural learning experience and an opportunity to practice their English language skills in an ungraded, conversational context. The ILC is also hosting the Educational Resilience Program, allowing us to provide hundreds of secondary school teachers from across Rwanda with training in digital teaching technology, student-centered teaching methods, and life skills concepts like gender equity, sexual and reproductive health, and mental health.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Since we welcomed our first class of 125 students in December 2008, we have provided over 1,900 young people with the education and care they need to heal from the past and dream of a brighter future. As of October 2023, this includes 511 current students and 1,364 alumni. 65% of our graduates have enrolled in higher education, compared to about 7% of young people nationally. Our graduates have earned degrees from institutions like the University of Rwanda, Carnegie Mellon University-Africa, Ashesi University, Brown University, and the University of Edinburgh, among others. 53% of our graduates are employed, self-employed, or completing internships, a rate about double the national average for youth employment. Our graduates are now leading the way in national development, contributing their skills and commitment to helping others to employers like the Office of the Prime Minister of Rwanda, the Bank of Kigali, One Acre Fund, Rwanda Bookmobile, Kivu Choice, and SolvIT Africa.
Our progress towards scaling has been two-fold:
First, we launched the Educational Resilience Program (ERP) in August 2021. The ERP is our first initiative with national reach, implemented in partnership with the Gashora Girls Academy, the Rwandan Ministry of Education, and the Mastercard Foundation. As of October 2023, the ERP had trained 500 secondary school teachers and 152 directors of studies from across Rwanda in student-centered teaching, digital teaching technology, and life skills education topics like gender equity, mental health, and sexual and reproductive health. By training Rwanda's teachers and school leaders, we aim to encourage increasingly engaging learning environments and keep more students, especially girls, in school. By 2023, ERP graduates had also reached at least 1,920 additional teachers through peer-to-peer training at schools in each of Rwanda's 30 districts. The ERP will reach up to 75,000 Rwandan students by the end of the 2023-2024 school year. The ERP has also demonstrated positive impact. One year after the 2021 ERP training, 93% of teachers had adopted digital technology in the classroom, 96% reported that the ERP had increased their desire to remain in the teaching profession, 80% reported an improved relationship with their students, and 93% of schools had adopted content from our life skills curriculum.
Second, we have secured funding for the development of a new monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system and impact assessments. Over the next two years, we will build a management information system (MIS) database to help staff members make evidence-based decisions; complete a planned impact assessment; and publish a monograph and model kit outlining aspects of our model suitable for replication. Within five years, we expect to have begun holding trainings for organizations interested in replicating our model. We also expect to have fully integrated data into our programming.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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AGAHOZO-SHALOM YOUTH VILLAGE INC
Board of directorsas of 01/11/2024
Ben Snyder
Elizabeth Stern
Michael DelGiacco
Christy Lamagna
Kathy Harris
John Hoover
Jean Kagubare
Bertrand Kayiranga
Cheryl Knopp
Jason Kotik
Jason Merrin
Jeff Schwartzman
Ben Snyder
Laurie Toll Franz
Brian Walsh
Crystal Rugege
Celine Uwineza
Carine Umutoni
Mikey Walker
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Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
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