Executive Summary:

Since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the vast majority of money spent to improve education has gone toward important but secondary issues and interventions that do little to build local capacity. Little has been done to equip or empower the key stakeholders most responsible for ensuring educational success.

For the past 2 years, Wellspring has run a pilot project in three districts in Rwanda’s Western Province.  After seeing the initial success in four of their 86 schools in the Rubavu district, the mayor invited Wellspring to become their primary educational partner and to implement our School Development Program (SDP) in all schools in alignment with the new government curriculum which, by invitation, Wellspring helped to craft.

Rubavu district has huge social needs, including high levels of poverty, gender-based violence, human trafficking and recruitment into militias or forced labour. We believe that by training, mentoring and empowering the key stakeholders through our SDP, we will be able to significantly change the trajectory of these schools and students and address these issues as we have and continue to do in Gasabo District.

Wellspring will continue its strategic and innovative approach having proven that, without any major change in the material conditions of a school, educational outcomes can be realized by equipping and supporting the educational stakeholders through quality Christian, values-based training. We will again focus on practical application so that learned skills can be immediately applied in the classroom.  We use local knowledge to build local capacity and work toward sustainability, saving thousands of dollars in the process.

Wellspring intends to roll-out their next SDP into the Western province, where they will train 1,471 teachers and school leaders, hundreds of parents and impact 91,400 students in 86 new schools over the next five years.  In sum, 86 high-need communities will be trained and equipped to create better schooling environments where children feel safe and are supported to succeed in completing a full cycle of education.

Measurable Outcomes:

1. Field office established in Rubavu district, inclusive of operational staff and field trainers (ABCD trainers and teacher trainers) who will establish themselves in the new region, and do the baseline work that will preface the roll-out of a 5-year program.
2. New and updated Monitoring and Evaluation systems in place and operational for Rubavu School Development Program (SDP). This will support introducing an IT innovation that will save money in the long-term and improve efficiencies in both program function and monitoring and evaluation.  New digital methods of data management will save 15% of trainers time, enabling them to focus on quality program management and training.
3. Start up of SDP in 5 schools within the district of Rubavu (Rwanda’s Western Province) as part of a 5-year strategy to partner with 86 schools.