When I First Felt that Anything Is Possible

By Jean-Claude Nkulikiyimfura, Executive Director, ASYV

Twenty-seven years ago, there was nothing here in Rwanda. The country was a failed state after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. I was one of the lucky ones who was not in Rwanda during the killings. I went to high school in France and college in the U.S., but I always had a thirst to move back to help to rebuild my country. I worked in government, I worked in corporate communications, but it was the moment I walked through the Village gates that I first felt that anything was possible. I saw that the Village was taking the most hopeless and helpless kids. These kids were mere statistics; they were simply called Genocide orphans. But at Agahozo-Shalom, they reclaimed their identity. They reclaimed their youth. They learned that their wounds could turn into scars they could live with. At the Village, the kids were being transformed into agents of change who would have an impact in their families, their communities, and the country. I just wanted to be part of that, and I’ve now been here for 10 years.

The Anything Is Possible campaign could have a huge impact on ASYV. It could allow us to build a village that’s self-sustainable, that could run for decades, and a model that could touch kids’ lives in other areas in crisis. Recently, we completed the first teacher training for our new Educational Resilience Program (ERP). The transformation that the participants had in two weeks was amazing—most of them came in as teachers and left as educators. And they will take these value-led, technology-driven approaches back to their own schools and communities and change the lives of 75,000 kids. At the end of the ERP, I sent a message to a friend and colleague that said, ‘We really are changing the world.’ I cannot wait to see where ASYV goes from here.