During the month of November 2021, 13 of us will be traveling to Ntarama, Rwanda where we will volunteer our time and also have the opportunity to invest in a mutually beneficial relationship with the local community here.

Our group will be working directly with the NGO “Rwanda Children,” whose mission is to provide housing, food, family and hope to at-risk Rwandan children. Most of our days will be spent working with these children in schools, teaching English as well as other subjects and skills they can benefit from. During one of these days in Ntarama, we will be given the chance to spend a day with a host family, learning about their daily routines in the home.

We want to show our appreciation to these families by gifting them a meaningful donation at the end of our trip, but as outsiders we do not want to make assumptions about the local communities’ wants and needs. We want to use our month in Rwanda to get to know this community, and at the end of this experience we will be able to determine the best use of your donations in order to support their current wants and needs in the most ethical and sustainable way possible.

We can’t wait to give you all an update about the final donation, as just a small amount of money can drastically change a person’s quality of life in the community we are visiting!

To learn more about the Linking Lives Study Abroad Program or the nonprofit organization we are working in the community with, Rwanda Children, please visit their websites: https://www.linkinglives.org/ and https://www.rwandachildren.org/