Annual $500 school fees for Olive's Orphans

Hello family and friends,

My name is Jean C. Bikomeye. I am organizing this fundraising on behalf of Olive's orphaned children.

Olive Nabakobwa was a financially-poor single mother of three children, ages 11, 16 and 18. She lived in Tunduti, a remote and rural village in Eastern Rwanda (East Africa), in a house without essential utilities like water and electricity. At the young age of 11, Olive became an orphan herself when both her parents died.

At 33 years old, after over a year of symptoms of an unknown severe disease, Olive was unfortunately diagnosed with late-stage cervical cancer in February 2021 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Doctors at the Rwanda Cancer Center (at the Rwanda Military Hospital) treated her for the disease. Unfortunately, her cancer continued progressing, and Olive passed away in February 2023, leaving three orphaned children behind. As Olive was classified in the poorest category in the country, Partners in Health, an organization founded by the late Dr. Paul Farmer, covered some costs of her treatment, and funds raised through this platform supported the remainder of her treatment before she passed.

While Olive was battling cancer (in pain and unable to work), her three children had to drop out of school and took the responsibility of caring for their very sick mother. The children farm on a tiny piece of land to generate food to feed the family. Before Olive's passing, we had put the children back in school. Those orphans now rely on funds raised on this platform to continue attending school in Rwanda.

All the $2,250 raised on this GoFundMe before Olive's passing went to her care. After her passing, we renamed this page to continue raising funds to keep the children in school.

Any dollar amount has the power to bring a positive change in these Orphans' life and make a life-lasting difference. Donations can be made on this GoFundMe link, Venmo (@bikojec88) or CashApp ($padiri01).

The cost of three children’s education is $500 per year in the Rwanda Basic education system (the total cost for six years is $3,000). Hopefully, if we raise more than $500 every year, we would love to cater to other ongoing needs in their lives.

Thank you very much!

Jean C. Bikomeye