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For a decade, Wellspring has been actively and passionately engaged in transforming the lives of Rwandans through our innovative School Development Program. A key component of the program focuses on equipping the community, and particularly parents, to deepen their involvement in the development of their schools, and in the learning and teaching of their children.
Florence Mutuyemungu is one of the parents that Wellspring has been privileged to train. As a result of our training, Florence developed a great passion for early childhood education, and is now a caregiver in one of the community nurseries. During recent training, she was eager to share how helpful Wellspring’s involvement has been to her and to many other parents as well.
“I am so thankful to Wellspring for their great involvement in empowering us … The increased parental awareness to be involved in the development of schools has allowed substantial and positive change in many ways. As a result of Wellspring initiatives, parents developed healthy work relations with school leaders. This ended the recurrent conflicts between parents and school head teachers. We also witnessed a growing attendance of parents in schools meetings. Many parents got involved in the development of school infrastructures like fences, refectories, public latrines, and hygiene rooms. Parents proactively supplemented teachers’ low salaries through voluntary and regular financial contributions. But on top of all that, students’ performance and quality education were highly improved. We hope that these kinds of training will continue to be accessible to as many parents as possible, to ensure that the community involvement in education is fostered.”
For Florence personally, the impact of Wellspring’s training has also been significant:
“Although we were elected and entrusted by our fellow parents to assist our community schools [through General Assembly Committees], some of us had no idea about what was expected from us. Wellspring helped us understand the nature of our role, as well as our relationship with teachers, school leaders, and students. So this training is very important and relevant since it helps the participants earn a deeper understanding of what it takes to be involved in the development of their schools. I strongly believe that if the lessons learned are consistently put into practice, schools will be positively impacted, and our students’ quality education will be deeply improved.”
True change is possible – and is happening – when parents are equipped to play their unique part in ensuring the best possible education for their children. Will you join us in making this transformation possible?
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