Catherine’s Exciting Teaching News

Seven years ago when I taught in Rwanda, I left with the vision of helping teachers here receive the professional development they wanted. I looked for experienced teachers in Australia who wanted to come here but found none. After a few years I realized that I was being provided with experience leading teachers in Australia that I could use in Rwanda too.

Then I had a child, soon two. By the time we arrived with a crawling baby and a two-year-old I wasn’t at all sure when my role as a mother would leave enough room to do anything else. When Bishop Nathan asked me to help establish a new school I agreed to look into it, and prayed that if God wanted me to take on this role he would make it clear.

I looked into the new school in small ways. I researched government guidelines for schools and how to apply to begin one. When I happened upon people involved in the field I asked them for advice. Then in July while we were at Kumbya Conference a colleague suggested I talk to Jeff Komant, who had established a Rwandan Christian school recently.

I was nervous about this meeting – hunted through my wardrobe for some professional clothes and left the kids with Tim at a friend’s house in Kigali. I caught a motorbike taxi to the Wellspring Academy; the school that Jeff’s foundation had built as a shining example to elite private schools. Jeff, a friendly Canadian and young father, set me at ease as we sat and chatted. It was exciting; we share a dream for education in Rwanda! I was even more amazed to hear Jeff’s foundation has started to make that dream come true.

Building a new school had been very expensive and was teaching a small number of children. It had a purpose in raising the bar for such schools but Jeff and his team wanted to reach more teachers and students. God introduced them to Kirsten, a British teacher, and together they developed a two year upgrade of skills program for teachers in Rwanda. The Wellspring Foundation now has a team of twelve Rwandan teachers who, having been trained, enter schools to teach their teachers and leaders. They are now running this program in forty government primary schools in the district surrounding Rwanda’s capital, and reaping wonderful results.

Jeff offered that if I wished to lead the expansion of this program into my district in southern Rwanda and could find a team of people, they would be happy to help train the team on the job alongside their own. They are also happy to freely share the resources they have developed. To top it off my role managing the team could definitely be part time, leaving me plenty of time to focus on my children. All in all, he was handing to me on a platter the role I had thought to play for so many years but with a lot of the hard work already done!

‘Hmmm, how would I find teachers for this training team?’ I wondered in the days that followed. Then I realized that a most perfect candidate was my closest friend here; Clementine, a Rwandan mother of three who trained in teaching, is naturally gifted, and wants to get back into the workforce to do some good for the community. I was feeling out-maneuvered and in awe of God’s planning and care. I felt like I had sat on my behind and done almost nothing, and yet God had arranged things so fully that I would have no excuse other than to participate.

On Wednesday Jeff Komant, his co-founder and I met with Bishop Nathan. The lead up to the meeting was very stressful, including a car accident on my way there! However the meeting went well. Bishop Nathan, to my delight, is very supportive of my following a call to train teachers rather than build a school, and is also thankful for the openness with which the Wellspring Foundation is sharing its knowledge and resources.

So a new phase in my life is about to begin…