About

 

Orphans of Rwanda, Inc. (ORI) is dedicated to providing university scholarships to talented orphans and socially vulnerable young people in Rwanda, enabling them to pursue their highest ambitions and ultimately become leaders in driving their country’s growth and reconciliation. We currently support 160 students who have overcome incredible challenges and are united by a desire to improve their lives and create meaningful change in Rwanda’s economy and society.

 

The 1994 genocide and the AIDS epidemic have produced a population of orphans and vulnerable children of unprecedented size, with over 825,000 orphans in a country of 10 million people. The Rwandan Government has recognized that an educated society will help Rwanda recover from the genocide and progress rapidly; however, only one in 200 Rwandans currently possess a university degree. Insufficient access to university education is part of a larger problem – a leadership deficit that limits Rwanda’s ability to grow.

Under the current Government’s leadership, Rwanda has progressed remarkably since the genocide but the country will need more leaders to drive growth and to ensure the success of the reconciliation process. ORI aims to support the country’s development by enhancing the social and gender diversity of the university population, and by enabling talented yet vulnerable young Rwandans to achieve their leadership potential.

The students we support represent a shift in the gender and socioeconomic diversity of Rwanda’s university students. Of the 160 students in our program, 91 (57%) are women and 69 are men. Additionally, 105 (66%) are double-parent orphans and 48 (30%) are single-parent orphans; only seven students have both of their parents.

 

More important than our students’ demographics are their achievements and their visions for their futures. This project will support 16 determined young men and women; one of them, Julliet Busingye, is a third year student at the prestigious Kigali Institute of Science and Technology. Julliet lives with seven other women in a house in Kigali, and she has explained that by living together as sisters, the women are preparing themselves to one day have children of their own and take good care of their families.

 

 

We would like to provide a perspective on the bright future that ORI students and other vulnerable Rwandans imagine for themselves and their country. During an all-student meeting in Kigali, one of our students stood up and said, “I have a dream that may sound more like a joke than a dream, but its craziness is matched only by the depth with which I hold this dream in my heart. My goal is to be the top IT professional in Rwanda – not just a good IT professional, but the best in all of Rwanda.” Given the historical exclusion of vulnerable young Rwandans from attending university, such a statement would have once been outlandish; today, this goal is a concrete possibility.

 

 

Learn more about ORI and how you can support us at www.orphansofrwanda.org

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