Valerie in Africa
I have an expression that I use when talking about working in developing countries: “Once you know, you can never not know.” This comes out of witnessing first-hand the effects of poverty on those who suffer. I believe it is impossible to return to the comforts and opportunities that we enjoy here in North America without reflecting on the huge discrepancies that exist in the world today. I often say that we did nothing to earn the high standard of living that we enjoy here…we just got ‘lucky.’
Eighteen years ago, my eyes were opened to a whole new world on the African continent, one where there is great poverty and tremendous hardship. But alongside the suffering I have also witnessed great joy, and I marvel at the resiliency of the human spirit. Moreover, the generosity that I have experienced in Africa will stay with me forever.
Valerie Kae Ken, Rwanda
In 1980, while studying clothing production at the London College of Fashion in England, I met an Irish nun who had spent most of her life in Uganda. Sr. Mary later contacted me to request my help in setting up a tailoring/clothing construction program for the St. Francis Family Helper Project in Uganda. The challenge of creating a program to deliver an employable skill, keeping in mind the specific needs of the target community, was daunting. But I was very excited and eager to design the two-year teaching program, which, I am pleased to report, is operating successfully to this day. Then, a few years later, a Franciscan priest who serves at the Father Vjeko Centre in Kivumu, a very poor rural village in Rwanda, approached me about creating a tailoring program for a trade school that he was developing. The Centre was named after Fr. Vjeko Curic, a much-beloved Franciscan priest who was murdered in Rwanda in 1998.
Valerie and students, Fr. Vjeko Centre
And so it began. As often as time and money permits, I travel annually to Africa to work at various projects. I am truly blessed to have this opportunity to share knowledge and experience with some of the most wonderful people I have had the privilege to know. In return, I receive so much more – gentle smiles, unwavering loyalty, open hearts and lasting friendships that are the very real treasures I cherish.
Tailoring Program, Kivumu, Rwanda
The village of Kivumu, about 35 kilometres from the town of Gitarama, Rwanda, now is home to a successful trade school, offering skills training in six disciplines – carpentry, brick building, tailoring, electricity, plumbing and welding. By offering the youth in this very poor area of the country a chance to learn a skill, it also gives them hope for the future. Like so many countries in Africa, Rwanda has two classes of people – the elite well-to-do and the poor majority. The horrific genocide that occurred there just twenty years ago left deep scars that have yet to be healed. In order for true peace and forgiveness to exist, there must be respect for every human life, and it is essential that each person have the right to earn a decent living. This is what we work towards – a time when there will be a large middle class society with a strong economy, which will benefit everyone.
A few years ago, we managed to bring three Rwandan teachers from Kivumu to Olds College in Alberta. They were able to spend three months monitoring classes in Tailoring and Carpentry, in order to improve their teaching skills. And in 2010, I was privileged to be involved, along with a wonderful group of volunteers from the Secular Franciscan community in Olds, in an exciting effort to send a forty-foot sea container to Kivumu. We delivered over ten thousand books, medical equipment, carpentry and tailoring supplies as well as desks, chairs, shelving units and filing cabinets to Padri Vjeko Technical School in Kivumu village.
The Franciscan friars serving this poor community in Rwanda are a living example of what can be accomplished in the spirit of Christ’s love and mercy. Each step builds on one already taken, and an amazing transformation has occurred in this little village in the heart of Africa. There is an overwhelming sense of pride in the community, and optimism shines out from the faces of all the villagers. And now another new school is being built! Kivumu will soon have a ‘Technical Secondary School’, offering students senior matriculation, as well as a skill-training program.
It can truly be said that God’s work is being done in this rural area of Rwanda.
Students modeling their creations
Note: This fall, Valerie Kae Ken travelled again to Rwanda to design a curriculum in tailoring for the new Senior Secondary School. As well, she plans to design a smaller program for the community of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and also to run a ‘Skills Upgrading Program’ for approximately forty tailoring teachers from the various educational institutes in the Southern Province of Rwanda. Valerie is also pursuing her Masters degree in Human Security and Peacebuilding out of Royal Roads University in Victoria, B.C.
For more information about the Father Vjeko Centre in Kivumu, Rwanda, visit http://vjeko-rwanda.info. Donations are most welcome – see details at http://www.vjeko-rwanda.info/en/donations
