Alain Safari & Howard Robinson

My name is Howard Robinson and I want to help my Rwandan friend Alain Safari raise money to send his little brother to secondary school. Alain knows that education is the only path out of poverty, and he cannot bear to witness his brother "Chiniman" lose his opportunity to have a better life. Today, there are no funds for Chiniman to register for school -- as even public secondary schools have fees that are out of reach for those living in poverty.

Alain and Chiniman's Story

Born to Rwandan parents living in exile in the Congo, Alain and his younger brother Chiniman were orphaned at a young age when their mother and father died in a car accident. Alain was 5 and Chiniman was an infant less than one-year old. From that point on, Alain and Chiniman bonded fiercely - brother to brother. Their journey together as children was precarious. They were first brought to an orphanage in the Congo. Their Rwandan grandmother retrieved them and brought them back to Rwanda. Too poor and sick to take care of them, she pleaded with the local priest to place them at “Les Hameaux de Dieu" (Little Villages of God), an orphanage in a remote area of eastern Rwanda.

The Two Brothers: Alain & Chiniman

Alain became a leader among his peers at the orphanage and was universally respected because of his intelligence, ability to manage younger children, and his reliability. Alain has an irrepressible love of life that you can witness in a short video produced by a Lithuanian film-maker named Vytautus Markunas, who visited the orphanage more than ten years ago. Alain is the young boy profiled, age 11, who you see, dressing for soccer, kicking the goal, and celebrating.


Alain is now 20 and completing course work for his B.A. He was lucky -- an American family agreed to fund Alain until he graduates university. But Alain worries every day, despite his own good fortune, because he is fearful that his younger brother, Chiniman, will not have the same opportunity for success that he has.

Chiniman

Alain describes Chiniman as  "honest , hardworking" "loves acrobatics," "plus he always likes to smile."

Chiniman was raised together with Alain in the orphanage until four months ago when the Rwandan government removed all children from orphanages and other forms of foster care to put them back into village communities.  As a result, Chiniman, now 15, was forced to leave precipitously and without future planning. Had he been able to stay, he would have completed secondary school at the orphanage. He now resides with old friends of his parents, but they do not have money to pay for his education. 

How I met Alain and why I am helping

I developed two parallel careers before I retired - one as licensed clinical social worker helping individuals and families, and another as a full-time Associate Clinical Professor of social service. My road to Rwanda began with a Fulbright Fellowship in Israel focused on trauma recovery. From there, I completed Harvard Medical School's Certificate Program in Refugee Trauma. My deepening interest in how people coped with collective trauma, genocide, and decades of colonial rule, led me directly to Rwanda. I traveled twice to Rwanda to learn about the scope of psychosocial services there and to experience the people and their culture first-hand since the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. I met Alain when I visited the remote community where his orphanage was located. He studied English well-enough to converse and he eagerly engaged me as my guide to life at Les Hameaux de Dieu and to the community at large. Our friendship was instant and has only deepened in the two years since. When Alain recently spoke to me of the dire situation with his brother, he was deeply worried but never gave up. Alain's own will to find solutions where none seem to exist made me believe in the possibility of miracles!! I therefore turned to GoFundMe in hopes that Alain and I can reach people who are not only moved but who also want to feel a sense of connection to a real life where the impact of their support is immediate and life-changing. 

While in Rwanda, I met with genocide survivors and perpetrators living together in the same village.

What is needed and how money will be used:

-- Approximately $500 per year including tuition, dorm and food
-- Money beyond the first $2000 will be used to pay for health care and medical expenses, data costs for online access (especially important during school closings due to COVID), and clothing.

With your generous support, we can ease his big brother's worry and fund all four years of secondary school for Chiniman.

 THANK YOU!! 

* You can learn more about me and the community development work focusing on trauma-informed education that I do within Rwanda at:

linkedin.com/in/howard-robinson-3109387
Twitter @Bflat6