Tools for Schools has had a big year. In January, the Jasper based non-profit saw the opening of the Roy Everest Jr. Nursery near Lake Kivu, Rwanda and already the plan is to expand the space to allow for more children.
That鈥檚 one of the things Jill Fenton, who founded the charity with her husband Neil, is working on now.
The nursery was built for six-year-old children of Nkora coffee farmers. Initially the intention was to have two classes of 30 each day, one in the morning and another in the afternoon.
鈥淏ut the day we registered, we had 120 kids lined up, so immediately we are now looking at expanding,鈥� said Fenton, who has been working in Rwanda for the past 14 years, building schools and educating teachers.
The construction of the nursery was the result of a boat trip the Fentons took with a friend to the coffee washing village of Nkora. The village sits right on Lake Kivu, one of Africa鈥檚 great lakes, shared between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The children of the village, once age seven, walk up a huge hill to get to primary school each day. 鈥淭hese little tots have over an hour to walk to school,鈥� said Fenton, noting that Rwanda is the land of 1,000 hills. 鈥淪o our idea was to build a nursery school so that the kids can have a head start.
鈥淪o Tools for Schools mobilized the money here in Jasper and Rotary assisted.鈥�
The Jasper Rotary Club, as well as Rotary International and the Rwandan Rotary Club of Kigali/Virunga, are huge supporters of Tools for Schools, each year providing funds for the projects and programs run by the charity.
Along with opening the nursery this year, Tools for Schools also had three volunteers from Jasper travel to Rwanda to work with teachers on a project called Ready to Read.
鈥淟ibby Weir came for two months, Dale Karpluk came for two months and a young girl called Kaytlyn Shapansky came for two months,鈥� said Fenton.
Weir, Fenton鈥檚 daughter-in-law, is a visual artist, so her task during her two month stay was to assist teachers in making books for their students.
When she first arrived, Weir told Fenton that she had to run to the store to pick up supplies for the project. 鈥淎nd I said 鈥楲ibby, these teachers can鈥檛 afford to buy things, so you have to do it out of nothing.鈥� So cardboard boxes were made into covers, brown paper bags were made into pages, we went to the market and the tailors in the market gave us the scraps of fabric to cover the books with and wire was the binding and she made the binding using a hammer and nails. She is incredibly creative.
鈥淚n the end she made 200 books with the teachers.鈥�
Once the books were made, Fenton and Karpluk worked with the teachers to write some of their own personal stories. During that time, Shapansky鈥檚 job was to teach English.
鈥淭here are two prongs to the work we do,鈥� said Fenton. 鈥淥ne is the training of teachers. We train them in improved methodology and improved English, because in the country, education has to be given in English. It鈥檚 the primary language in East Africa and Rwanda is part of the East African community.
鈥淪o we teach English and improved methodology because these teachers themselves have only had chalk and talk, they don鈥檛 have textbooks and they don鈥檛 know how to use textbooks when they鈥檙e given textbooks.鈥�
Keeping that in mind, Tools for Schools鈥� project this winter, along with working to harness funding for a nursery school expansion in Nkora, is to create libraries and instruct teachers how to use them.
鈥淟ast year we called our project Ready to Read and this year Rotary has applied for a grant for Right to Read, with a focus on libraries,鈥� said Fenton.
鈥淲e鈥檒l still be doing the same thing, still improving teaching and improving English, but setting up libraries and teaching people how to use the libraries because they鈥檝e been given textbooks that are sitting on the shelf.鈥�
Once the teachers are comfortable with the concept of teaching with a textbook, then the books can be given to the children to use and learn from, said Fenton.
That project will begin in November.
Currently, Weir, the international committee chair for the Jasper Rotary Club, is selling jam at the farmers鈥� market to raise the funds to pay for her trip back to Rwanda this winter.
To learn more about Tools for Schools or to donate to the charity, visit toolsforschools.org or pop by 510 Robson St. on Aug. 31. On that day, there will be a rummage sale taking place with all proceeds going toward the charity.
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
