Abana -My Story

Welcome to Abana, my name is Sheila and Abana was set up as a charity in 2010 after my husband and I had spent a year as volunteer teachers in secondary schools in southern Rwanda, one of the poorest parts of a very poor country. We saw at first hand how desperate the young people we taught were, to learn, to get a good Education, to do the very best they could in the circumstances.

We had to do something to help!

My smallest class was 48, my largest over 60 and yet
I never once had to discipline a child. With their 1 pen
and scruffy exercise books, they hung on every word;
desperate to pass exams and then do the national
exam which would enable them to go to university or
college.

They knew that a good Education was their only way to break out of the dreadful cycle of poverty that is the lot of most Rwandans.

Most secondary schools in Rwanda are boarding schools which charge fees. When we first set up the charity the fees for 1 child were the equivalent of £30 a term but since the pandemic they have risen steeply and are now the equivalent of £90.

Many young people never go to secondary school and many do 1 year or 1 term and their parents are unable to find the money for them to go on.

If Abana takes on a young person’s Education then we must make a commitment to continue until that Education is completed. This may just be to the end of school but it can mean 3 years at university or college. We can’t let them down.