HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT- Herbert ( not his real name ) 

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We met Herbert this spring when we visited Gashora. He is an amazing young man whose family experienced some misfortune that left the family destitute. JHA took Herbert in. After spending just a few hours with him it quickly became apparent that this young man is absolutely brilliant. His intellect is superior, his personality is humble, kind and loving. He spends all his free daylight hours helping out at the farm or wherever help is needed. He studies late at night. He has big dreams and wants to help his country move forward. Graduating from a village High School would not exactly open many doors and the suggestion was made to send Herbert to a private school in Kigali for his final year. And so it came about that through some generous donations to the JHA THRIVE PROGRAM that Herbert started his final year at a new school. 

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Things didn’t start out easy as even the security guard looked down at him as the entered school grounds with Rogers, coming from the bus station, compared to well dressed students being dropped off in fancy cars. 
Rogers, who had experienced similar discrimination during his high school and university years, is well able to mentor Herbert and booster his self esteem and self worth. In the few weeks since this school year began Herbert has already caught the attention of the principal and is being recommended for a basketball scholarship and tuition support. We have no doubt that he will graduate and we won’t be surprised if it is near the top of his class. In his way he will make his mark in the world. 

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Jha Real Moon Soccer:

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The many soccer teams are continuing you train and play and thanks to the generous donations by many Vancouver Island soccer clubs more and more players now have cleats and soccer jerseys. As we all know, sport is an important part in children’s lives. It not only builds community but also helps keep the kids busy and the teenagers out of trouble.

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Some other stories from the team:

• - “So many "isms" in the world, but how about "smile-ism" ...Smilism." In Gashora Football has no boundaries to smiling. 

JHA Real Moon Soccer Team against the team from the Gashora Refugee Camp

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• One of our beneficiaries had been thrown out of his home by his father to go fend for himself when he was just a young child. He had never been acknowledged by his family as his mother was a prostitute. Today that same father is walking around town, so proud, telling everyone about his wonderful son, that has accomplished so much under the care and love of JHA.
   

• Some of our youngsters are struggling with the history of their parents. The children have a hard time to forgive their fathers who have been perpetrators during the Genocide. One father tried to explain that he felt he had no choice but to follow orders as the lives of his children had been threatened if he refused to obey the orders. His son responded that he rather would have been killed as a small child than live with the shame of knowing what his father did. Thank God we now have regular sessions with the team from PEACEFUL HEART that is now coming to Gashora to work with this kind of trauma. 
   

• When one of our team members received some payment for all his work, this is what he said : “ I used to be a street boy, and what is important is how many boys did I get off the street? That is my real payment."
   

• I thought about a very young woman that came to me today, I had just left the piggery farm, on my small bike as usual, and never noticed someone was running behind after my bicycle. I heard a sobbing mother with two babies who go to our ECD center, one on her back and one holding her hands. "Rogers, Rogers I want to talk to you. You know very well that these two go to your school, thank you for all the help you have given us, but now I feel like giving up. Yesterday the house owner where we rented a small house with my children as a single mum threw us out of the house. As you see us together we slept outside with my babies, this is not the only problem now, I am wondering if we will keep this way and it is even hard for me to organize children to come to school from no where." I immediately noticed in her conversation that she even had no job to do since it is the trend now in Gashora, this never stopped me from asking "Where do you work" in quest to know if she even wants to work, and her answer was " I wish I had work ". Story short, I sent her to start work immediately at the farm and to eat from our farm feeding program. She ate with her children and when I went to the Dairy farm to check and she was there for the whole evening and received payment for her work."