Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

GIRLS SPACE – New 2020 intake

With great excitement, trustees Sue Spence and Chris Neill, and filmmaker Rachel Neill set off in early March to Rwanda. At this point Covid-19 was minimal in both countries.
One of the primary aims of this trip was to create an informative film about the day-to-day life within Girls Space, and to give the viewer an idea of the background and home life of the girls who attend the hub. The plan was to have visual material to show potential funders.
Trustees had also carried out two large suitcases full of donated trainers for the girls to wear during sports sessions.

After a trip to visit Girls Space, where Kari and Debs showed Sue, Chris and Rachel around and a detailed film planning meeting in Kigali, we received the devastating news from the Rwandan government that all schools would be closed from 16 March until further notice. For a few hours we had a glimmer of hope that Girls Space and the girls’ cooperative would be allowed to continue, since it is independent from school, but these hopes were quickly dashed.
It was devastating. After all the planning, travelling, borrowing camera equipment and setting up shots in our head of what we would love to be able to film, the film was now impossible.

The rest of the much-shortened trip was filled with compiling our Development Plan and Safeguarding Policy, in collaboration with the owner of Faith and Hope School.

Then followed a rush to get seats on the last flight out of Kigali before the country went into lockdown on 20 March, along with what looked like half of Rwanda’s ex-pat community making an exodus from the country.

Sue, Chris and Rachel reluctantly said farewell to Kari at Kigali airport and arrived back in Scotland on 21 March, two days before the start of UK lockdown. We were very relieved to have made it out on time, having heard many stories about the escalation of coronavirus in the UK, and all the associated panic and stockpiling. Then followed fourteen days of isolation for us all.

(After our return, Rachel edited together some previous footage taken on a phone which made the work of Girls Space come to life. The main idea was to have something to show potential funders, and that objective was achieved. Hopefully we can make a more ambitious film down the line to showcase the next stage in the Girls Space history).

After our return there followed a few frustrating weeks where all we could do was spend time putting in place Girls Space and Coop documentation with Kari and Debs via Zoom, all the time crossing our fingers that things would get  back to normal as soon as possible.

NEW TRUSTEE!

In April a new trustee, Jude Black, came onto the Board. “New” is not quite the word to use when referring to Jude, as she has been involved with TiSR since the very beginning! Jude has been travelling out to Rwanda and working hard for the charity for many years. She spent a month there in January and February 2020 to help Kari with the new Girls Space cohort. Fortunately for us, her new retired status allowed her more time to become a Board member – so education’s loss is our gain!!

It became clear in early April that Kari urgently needed to get back home to Scotland or have to remain in Rwanda for an indeterminate time. Travel options were becoming more and more limited on a daily basis. She had a very small window of opportunity, and competition for the few flights available was fierce. In the end, due to hard work on the part of trustee Penny Lochhead and our local MSP, she managed to squeeze onto one of the rare flights. It was a circuitous route, but eventually she got home safely.

CHALLENGE ME CAMPAIGN

In the absence of an opportunity to do a fundraising event this year, the charity decided to run an online campaign. The initial aim was to raise around £1000 as we knew most people would be struggling for spare cash due to the pandemic.

Rachel Neill and Kari put together a compilation video to promote our cause and we launched it just before May 1^st as a one month long May challenge called Challenge Me, promoted on Facebook and Instagram.

The idea was to set yourself an individual challenge, or a group challenge and get donations. There was also the opportunity to “Challenge Kari”, where people set the challenge for Kari and she had a go herself.  This doubled the money donated, was extremely popular and also hilarious as people tried to think of the most inventive and uncomfortable challenges!

Unbelievably, the money poured in and, instead of the £1000 we expected, we were astounded to find that we had made around £6000, including Gift Aid!

Shortly after Rwandan lockdown began, and due to the fact that school was closed and pupils and teachers were no longer able to receive their regular porridge, we decided to divert funds from the school food programme into the direct purchase of food packages to distribute directly to the neediest families in the community.

A representative from each family would pick up their package from school every month, in a coordinated and socially-distanced manner. This system is continuing until school resumes, which could be at the beginning of 2021.

We decided to look for a seamstress with experience in more advanced sewing techniques, and so Veronique joined the team. She is now working closely with Debs and advancing the skills of our enthusiastic cooperative girls. As Kari is overseeing all aspects of Girls Space remotely now, Debs has stepped up to take charge on a daily basis and Veronique is proving to be a great asset to this new team.

At the beginning of September the Girls Space Girls were given the all clear by the government to resume their training. It was heartbreaking when they were forced to down tools in March, when school closed. They had started so enthusiastically, so it was fantastic to see the smiles return and for them to get back to learning, albeit wearing masks and socially distancing at all times.

Earlier in the year we received a lovely, and very unexpected donation from a café near Kinross called “Common Grounds”, whose customers had collected £1000. It is their policy to choose different Scottish charities to donate to, and so we were delighted when they picked TiSR!
Girls Space had no water tank to collect rainwater from the roof during rainy season and store, so this money was put to good use very quickly. We are immensely grateful to Common Grounds for their generous donation, and very much hope they are managing to continue trading through these uncertain times

Due to the prolonged school closure we decided to trial a home learning programme with the P6 pupils (those in their final primary year). In collaboration with the head and teaching staff, some appropriate teaching materials were sent home, in the hope that pupils didn’t lose their learning momentum. This is ongoing and being monitored online by Kari and the teaching staff.

If you would like to find out more about the work we are doing, or how you can get involved then please email kari@togetherinsportrwanda.org

Here’s to 2021!