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Channel of Hope Disability Center & Sewing Coop

Channel of Hope Disability Center and Sewing Coop is a planned wraparound rehab, education, respite, training and counselling center for children with disabilities and their parents in Rural Rwanda.  The center would provide care, education, job training, and rehab for the children, with respite, job training and counselling for their parents, leading to improved quality of life for children with disabilities.

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Phase 1

 Open a sewing coop and school in the town of Kayonza to teach 12 students from our target group at a time, together with up to 12 paying students from the local community.

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The Channel of Hope Coop opened on Jan 15, 2024, and 19 students from our group are currently enrolled in a 6-month sewing program with a qualified teacher. 

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Funding has been secured from private donors for the first term of entire project, with the possibility of renewal for subsequent classes. Additional funding sources are being investigated.

Phase 2

Open a joint disabilites center and sewing coop.

 The building can also be rented out to the community as the government has passed a law that gatherings like weddings and large parties must be done inside a building now, instead of under rented tents as was the common practice previously.  Churches are also looking for places to hold church services on Sunday afternoons.  The district also needs places for meetings on evenings.

  1. Raise funds for the land, building and equipment needed to open the child center.

  2. Get additional private donors willing to support the ongoing costs i.e. staff, and supplies.

  3. Once funds are secure, acquire suitable land and build the disabilites center/coop on the land.

  4. Move sewing coop from present location to new building.

  5. Find and hire a qualified special education teacher.

  6. Assess skills of parents in project and hire additional aides, a cook, gardener, and caretaker from those who have the ability to take on those positions.Provide any additional training necessary to ensure they can perform their jobs.

  7. Open center and move children's tutoring classes to this location.

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Phase 3

Plant a community garden where children have access to nature, learn to help work in a garden, and improve the quality and variety of food available for healthy meals for the children at the center with excess produce available to take home to their families. Parents of the children can try a variety of vegetables that they may not have been aware of or compare the productivity of different strains.  This meets one of the district goals of teaching people in the district how to eat more healthy foods and have a more balanced diet.

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            This is a simple addition of a garden to land we have already acquired in phase 2.  The work will be done by the parents attending the coop, as well as by any student capable of helping in any way.

Funds only need to be raised for an initial small supply of equipment like hoes and hoses, as well as seeds to start the plants.  Seeds can be kept from harvest to keep the garden going for future harvests.

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A gardening teacher will be hired on a 6-month contract to continue to teach our families best gardening practices. This will build on what they have been learning through workshops. The parents and students will take over the garden completely after the 6 months.

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The garden can be used as a test garden to check out which varieties of vegetables produce the best in this area.  This will be of benefit not only to our families but to the community as a whole.

Phase 4

A second building will be added to the land to give a dedicated space for a health and rehab center.

  1. One time funding will be raised for the building and additional equipment needed to fill it.

  2. Additional sponsors must be secured to pay the ongoing salaries of the healthcare workers who will be providing services to the children and their parents.

  3. Once all funding has been secured, the building will be built and we will hire the staff to conduct the rehab sessions, physical assessments, group counselling and educational workshops.

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Phase 5

Recreation Center

The final building on the land is a recreation center which will contain a cafeteria for the parents and children, an expansion of space for both the children’s and health centers and a dedicated office.

The building can also be rented out to the community just as the previous phases.

This phase does not require any additional staffing, it just allows our current staff more room.

  1. One time funding will be raised for the building and the equipment.

  2. Once the funding has been secured, the building will be built on the land we already have purchased.

Phase 6

This is the final phase and will involve adding a playground with swings, basketball hoop and volleyball net for the use of our children and the community.  The space can be rented to the community for a small fee as schools and teams are always looking for places to practice and volleyball and basketball are very popular in Rwanda.

Our parents can also run clubs using this area and will be able to earn money as club leaders.

  1. Raise money for to put in a basketball/volleyball court and supply the equipment.Also raise money to put in an accessible swing suitable for larger children, and a slide.

  2. The equipment will be added as the funds are raised. We can do this this phase ongoing as the funds are secured.

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