Projects

Current Initiatives

The Benebikira Foundation has prioritized three important projects for the near future:

Benebikira Scholarship Program K-12 School in Kigali Ministry of Hope, Healing and Reconciliation Our Lady of the Angels School

Benebikira Scholarship Program

The Benebikira Sisters Foundation has made it a priority to sponsor each student at Our Lady of the Angels School in Kigali, Rwanda.  The average Rwandan makes $240.00 US Dollars each year and the school fees at Our Lady of the Angels are $150.00 US Dollars each year.  The families at Our Lady of the Angels need your help in educating their sons and daughters, who are the future leaders of Rwanda. You can help keep tuition affordable at Our Lady of the Angels by sponsoring a student for only $50.00. Donate now to the Benebikira Sisters Scholarship Program

K-12 School in Kigali

In the capital city of Kigali, the Benebikira Sisters plan on building Our Lady of the Angels (Notre Dame des Anges) school in the neighborhood of Remera. Remera is home to many Rwandans who were displaced from the countryside during the genocide of 1994 and never moved back. Additionally, many refugees flocked to Kigali after 1994 to start their lives again. The Rwandan government has erected housing projects to house this population for whom the Sisters hope to provide education. Due to the high demand for private, Catholic education, the Sisters can fill the school as soon as it is built. Our Lady of the Angels will be a tuition-based school, though the Sisters hope to have sponsors for the poor and orphaned. Our Lady of Angels will be built in three stages.

Stage One - Elementary School:

First, the Sisters will open an elementary school in January 2008. This two story building will serve 275 students in grades 1-6 and have 6 classrooms, a computer room, office space, and bathrooms. The building project is currently underway and all grants and charitable donations can be used to expand the school building.

Elementary School:

  • 7 classrooms: $90,000
  • 1 library: $15,000
  • 1 teacherŐs room: $10,000
  • 2 offices: $15,000
  • 1 waiting room: $13,000

The total cost of the Our Lady of the Angels School is $143,000 US

Stage Two - Secondary School:

Second, the Sisters will build a secondary school to open in 2011 to serve grades 7-12. The school will have 6 classrooms and serve approximately 275 students.

Building 1:

  • Classrooms (12): $150,000
  • Computer Lab: $20,000
  • Science Lab: $20,000

Building 2:

  • Library: $20,000
  • All-Purpose Room: $30,000
  • Bathrooms: $10,000
  • Offices (4): $10,000
  • Teachers' Rooms: $20,000
  • Storage: $20,000

Total Cost of Secondary School: $300,000

Stage Three - Pre-School:

The final stage of Our Lady of the Angels will be the building of a preschool to compliment the elementary and secondary schools.

  • Classrooms (4): $30,000
  • Administration Building: $35,000
  • Bathrooms (10): $10,000

Total Cost of Pre-School: $75,000

Wall surrounding the entire complex: $35,000

Total amount of building costs for Our Lady of the Angels: $553,000

Donate now to the Benebikira Sisters Kigali School

Ministry of Hope, Healing and Reconciliation

The Ministry of Hope, Healing and Reconciliation seeks to bring together perpetrators and victims of the genocide to help them seek peace with one another. Now that more than a decade has passed since the genocide, perpetrators have been released from prison and are returning to the villages in which they committed war crimes where they will live side by side with the victims of the genocide who live with the pain of their experiences.

In this situation, it is both groups who are suffering and are in desperate need for counseling and support to recover from the post-traumatic stress and anxiety brought on by their memories. In the absence of a social services system, there is no way for these individuals to access the counseling and facilitation required to come to peace with their pain.

The Ministry of Hope, Healing and Reconciliation is aimed directly at providing this service in a ground-breaking and sustainable way.

SisterAnna Beata Murekatete, a survivor of the genocide herself, recognized that there is not only a need for extensive counseling, but survivors of the genocide also need concrete skills in order to procure economic stability in the future.

The program has three key pillars:

  • Sisters and lay ministers counsel war crime prisoners and victims through their emotional and spiritual pains.
  • A program will be instituted in school communities to address students' trauma experiences during the anniversary months of the genocide: April to July.
  • Survivors of the genocide will be given vocational tools to pursue jobs in Rwanda and beyond.

The Ministry of Hope, Healing and Reconcilation will cost $42,000 per year.

Donate now to Ministry of Hope, Healing and Reconciliation