Rwanda English Project

Rwanda, July 1994: over 800,000 dead in 100 days. Half of population were refugees. No businesses. No government. No health care. No currency. Only death. A completely failed state.

Rwanda, March 2019: 8% GDP growth. Safest and cleanest country in Africa. Universal health care and family planning. Corruption free government. A safety net protecting the very poorest. 

“No country in Africa, if not the world, has so turned itself around in so short a time” (NY Times).

Rwanda has become a good-governance and progressive model for all of Africa. But Rwanda remains poor. They have few natural resources and a large population, Eighty percent of the workforce are subsistence farmers or small business owners. Its GDP ranks in the bottom quartile.

Rwanda’s goal is to transform their subsistence economy to one of IT, business service, telecommunications, and tourism. They just might make it. Already the 20% of the workforce presently not involved in subsistence farming accounts for 50% of the GDP.

In 2009 they adopted English as the national language thus giving them access to international commerce and the English-speaking East African Commonwealth market.

However, today only seven percent of the population speaks English. The average public school teacher speaks English below the 2^nd grade level. That teacher is required to teach English or to teach in English.

The Rwanda English Project, an Oregon 501c3 teaches public school teachers spoken English.

In just a year and a half, 25 teachers have been trained as instructors and they have provided over 400 hours of spoken English instruction to over 100 other teachers in their schools, teachers who in turn impact over 7,000 primary and secondary students. 

The Project has just begun working in a teacher training college, where our instructors provide spoken English instruction to both other college teachers and students.

The mayor of the district we work in has asked that the Project provide English instruction to the community leaders—business, health, police, and government.

The project continually receives more requests for spoken English instruction from schools, government agencies, and non-profits.

Although funding for this school year (January through December, 2019) is secure, we must line up funding for next year. 

We need at least $50,000 to:

▪ Expand the community program to include citizens of the community

▪ Expand the teacher training college program to include more students

▪ Expand teacher English instruction into three new schools (Each school serves 2-3000 students)

▪Provide a second year of spoken English instruction to teachers

▪Extend instruction to more 6^th grade students

▪ Train more instructors and coaches

▪ Train project managers

We offer qualified individuals an opportunity to work with us to join in the effort to meet Rwanda’s goals. We envision a ¼ time fund-raising commitment and will provide a generous percentage of grants awarded.

Do the research on this remarkable country. Learn about our project at: rwandaenglishproject.org and join us in our efforts to be part of something truly remarkable.

Don and Deborah Steely

Project Directors