At Love with Actions, we know education is vital for the growth of a community, and we believe everyone has a right to it. One of the ways we empower families is by working to enable disabled children to attend school. Our main campus in Bumbogo has an inclusive school with teachers that are trained to educate children with disabilities.

We also advocate at local schools for these children. In 2018, a team from Golden, Colorado came and installed accessible ramps in one of the local schools. We also funded the installation of ramps in a second local school. The ramps that we installed took the place of stairs that were previously the only way to access the classrooms. Now, some of our children in Love with Actions, as well as other children in the community with disabilities, have the option to attend public school.

Along with the ramps, we installed accessible toilets at these schools. The bathroom is a unique challenge here for disabled people. Most public schools, and a lot of public places in Rwanda, only use pit latrines. A pit latrine is a hole in the ground that you have to squat over to use. For children who’s legs aren’t as strong as other children, this can be impossible to use. The installation of toilets not only makes the school more accessible for disabled children, but also provides them with the dignity of not needing help to use the bathroom.

Another way that we are advocating for disabled children in the classroom, is teaching the administration of these schools the difference between inclusivity and segregation. One example is the chalkboard in the classroom. The local schools installed smaller chalkboards in the back of the classroom that were lower to the ground, in an attempt to let the disabled children write. All the other children used the main board at the front of the class, and when a disabled child went to write, they had to use the one in the back of the classroom. In their effort to include the disabled children, they ended up singling them out and making them feel excluded. This can often be a grey area that is difficult to navigate if you aren’t used to dealing with it.

Love with Actions tries to level all playing fields so that children with disabilities can feel welcome. This serves the dual purpose of also teaching children without disabilities to view everyone as equal and deserving of respect.

Advocacy for education for these children is a long road and we have only just begun to implement all the ways that we can effect positive change. Thank you for standing by us in our mission and for your unfailing generosity.

Together we hope that we can empower new generations of children to grow and to make for themselves a better world.