Don Bosco Institute - Rwanda
The Don Bosco Institute & The London Oratory School
linked together in work, in prayer and in life
The relationship between the Don Bosco Institute in Kabarondo, Rwanda and the London Oratory School in London, England began in 2000.
Until 2009, it was primarily based on donations from LOS to DBI. Library shelves were filled, computers were brought, dormitories and washing facilities were built, a volley ball pitch was laid, and a bio-gas water heating system was installed.
Behind the scenes, from 2009, LOS parents began to contribute to the cost of educating genocide orphans. All of this still carries on, and makes a huge difference to the lives of pupils at DBI.
But in 2009 the relationship really developed when teachers from both schools visited each other, and when the relationship began to influence what was being done in both schools' classrooms.
Finally, in 2009 volunteers began to go out from amongst school leavers of the London Oratory, to spend some of their ‘gap year' time at DBI. They go as independent volunteers, who just happen to be former pupils of the London Oratory School.
They will live in a small house of their own, just outside the school grounds, and they are there to act as English teaching assistants in the classrooms of DBI, to help develop and enrich the extra-curricular activities of the school, to develop a community service programme in the market town of Kabarondo, and to act as co-ordinators in Rwanda for all the joint school curricular projects as they develop.
This website is meant primarily as a way for these ‘gap year' volunteers to keep in touch with each other as a group, to record what they are doing and their reflections on the experience of being a DBI volunteer, and to promote the project for those interested in spending some time at DBI.
It includes a Latest News blog with contributions from all those involved, a Rwanda page with contributions on Rwandan society, history, and current affairs, a Diary page to record events in the DBI year and when volunteers go out and come back, and an Information page to pass on helpful advice and information between volunteers.
It is managed by Fr George Bowen with the help of a support team drawn from former volunteers, Rwandan ‘old hands', and a committee of potential volunteers.
Click here for more information.
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