ASYV Jewish Service Corps Volunteer Featured in PresenTense Magazine

The recently released PresenTense Magazine Jewish Heroes Issue features an article by Jewish Service Corps volunteer, Mike Brand, where he writes about his experience as a volunteer at the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda, a project of JDC's International Development Program. 

You can read the article on the eJewish Philanthropy blog at Smile: Worthwhile – Volunteering in Rwanda.

To learn more about JDC's Jewish Service Corps, please visit the JDC website. 

For more information about the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village, visit

 http://www.agahozo-shalom.org/index.html.

ASYV Fundraiser Featured in the Press

On May 12, Liquidnet Holdings, Inc. raised $500,000 for the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda at their second annual "Stand Up and Be Counted" gala event.

Liquidnet Holdings, Inc., a New York-based financial technology firm, is the lead corporate partner of the ASYV. The ASYV is the signature project of Liquidnet’s Global Social Engagement program, whereby the company leverages a wide variety of its resources to tackle social challenges.

Read all about the event at Liquidnet Trades for Rwanda Victims.

For more information about the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village, visit http://www.agahozo-shalom.org/index.html.



Video featured at the first "Stand Up and Be Counted" event in 2009.

Youth Village in Rwanda Featured on CBS Evening News

CBS Evening News recently featured the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda, a special project of JDC, in a piece during their evening broadcast on March 31.

Watch the video on the CBS Evening News website HERE.

The Agahozo Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) aims to create a safe and structured residential community for orphaned children in Rwanda. The village will be a place of hope, where traumatized youth can "dry their tears" (Agahozo) and "live in peace" (Shalom).

Within this caring environment, the rhythm of life will be restored, so that youth who have been through great trauma will find a home and a community, as well as a place to learn and become leaders for tomorrow. The youth who come to live and learn in the ASYV will grow into healthy adults who are not only able to care for themselves and their families, but who are also committed to making their community, their country, and indeed the world a better place.

To learn more about the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village, check out their website, read the blog and view the latest photos.

JDC Volunteer Shares Her Experiences on Her Blog

Tanya Fredman, an artist from St. Louis (featured in an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and posted on our blog HERE) spent most of this past year as a volunteer both in Israel and at the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda.

(click on the picture to see more photos)

Share in her stories, thoughts and photographs of her volunteer experience by visiting her blog, Painting Hope: Israel and Rwanda

On a Hillside in Rwanda, Orphans Find Semblance of Normalcy

From the Huffington Post
July 30, 2009
by Judy Flumenbaum and Ben Gittleson
Photo by Judy Flumenbaum

"Can you tell me about your family, your past?" a counselor at a Rwandan youth village for orphans happily asked one of us on our recent visit to his country. He took notes, probing as to how journalism and writing could help his young friends open up and learn about the world. When it came time for the questions about his family, though, his speech slowed and he looked toward the floor. His grandmother, killed by murderous militiamen, his sister, "violated" during the genocide, before she too was murdered. But suddenly his somber expression turned more upbeat as he glanced at his watch and said, "Ah, it's time for dinner. Let's go see everyone!"

For one week in May, we lived and worked at the beautiful Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in rural Rwanda. The youth village, located an hour outside of the capital Kigali, houses 125 Rwandan teenagers who were orphaned by the 1994 Rwandan genocide. A special project of the American Joint Distribution Committee that was officially inaugurated last month, the village provides housing, meals, education and mentorship for these orphans, many of whom as recently as a year ago lacked any semblance of a stable support system.

Our friend the counselor was not the only one having difficulty grappling with the legacy of genocide. An uncomfortable attempt at normality has settled on the villages and farms of the rolling green hills that extend for miles around the youth village and across Rwanda. The African nation now exists as a shining example of progress and modernity, packed with the sounds of its people conducting business as usual -- farmers whacking machetes into the fire-red earth, laughing kids chasing each other on the way to their local wells, the honks of speeding minibuses and motorcycle taxis filling the air.

How far has Rwanda come? A bulwark of its region, the country has emerged from an incredibly complex and unique post-genocidal reconciliation effort and is developing at breakneck speed around one national identity. Still, in some ways it appears as if Rwanda has continued its ancient agricultural routine uninterrupted for centuries. A stroll to a local market on a dusty dirt road reveals the smiling faces of villagers toiling on their patches of land, always stopping their work to say maramutse, "good morning." Yet this same dirt path is now lined with modern utility poles and cell phone towers, connecting the landlocked country to the rest of the world.

The youth village exists as a small but powerful response to an epidemic continuing to cripple Rwanda's social systems: 1.2 million orphans living on the streets -- in child-headed homes or in under-funded orphanages -- with nowhere to go. The genocide -- lasting only 100 days -- killed 800,000 people, displaced even more and ravished the countryside. An unfathomable number of orphaned children were robbed of their families, of their homes and of their communities. But even worse, they no longer had hope for a viable future.

At Agahozo Shalom, though, the dream is that one day the village's graduates will return to their communities across Rwanda and show their friends and neighbors what they, too, might eventually achieve. Whether they become doctors, businessmen, ministers in the Rwandan government or farmers, all of them will shine as beacons of hope for the scores of others like them. The village, too, can serve as a model to be replicated throughout Rwanda and around the world.

But even this safe space is strewn with fleeting -- yet penetrating -- evidence of tragedy and devastation. In the village dining hall, a common area where all meals and group meetings take place, a large purple banner hangs in memory of the genocide and the family members lost. Or, more unexpectedly, a quick, innocent turn of a staff member's head reveals -- ever so briefly -- a 10-inch-long scar from the swipe of a machete. The abruptness of such reminders is often shocking, poignantly preventing anyone from forgetting that the genocide took place unbelievably recently.

Meanwhile, more formal hints of the extermination pervade the country's picturesque landscape. White crosses draped in purple sashes stick out in ubiquitous local memorials. Nearly every village seems to have a monument to the tragedy, an indication of the universal impact the genocide had across Rwanda.

As outsiders, and especially as short-term visitors, it is particularly difficult to understand how one could ever move on in any way from what happened. And yet, on a hilltop overlooking a gorgeous lake in the southeast of the country, orphans trudge up to their morning classes, play soccer after school and struggle with algebra homework. They repeat this routine every day with the hope of someday living a fully normal life in a completely normal country. Life goes on because it has to.

What was most encouraging was the speed by which the youth have formed very close relationships. In a country and a community where family units have become disjointed -- distant cousins replacing brothers and sisters, friends or neighbors taking the place of parents -- new "families" at Agahozo Shalom have thrived as examples of adaptation. We visited a "family" that consisted of 16 girls and a "mother" figure. This group of people -- strangers before meeting in December -- has truly become a viable family. We saw them hug each other like they had grown up as sisters, laugh like they had known each other for years. For orphans who likely lacked a routine and stability in the past, this village finally gave them the sense of home and security they needed to thrive.

Agahozo Shalom helps these children to learn to deal with the legacy of genocide, their emotions and the feelings and loss with which their country continuously struggles. Listening to the orphans' rap songs describing the importance of family, or looking at beautiful murals of homes and family that no longer exist, we saw how the village provides an outlet for their pain and suffering that they might not have been able to receive elsewhere. As a result, they are able to move on, at least to some extent.

Still, these kids are haunted by their past nearly every day. A memorial ceremony a few months ago aroused intense emotions in many of the students, with some experiencing terrible flashbacks to the moments they and their families were hunted 15 years ago. "I am longing to meet you, my lovely parents," reads their school anthem. "I am missing my lovely parents."

But the orphans, too, are pushing forward. They have no other choice. Their typical Rwandan pragmatism and hope comes through at the close of that same school song: "Not all people are bad. Now I have got other parents, who welcomed me. ... Please let's join hands together to thank them for the wonderful love they show us."

Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda Dedicated 15 Years After Genocide to Provide Healing Community to African Orphans

JDC Shares Lessons Learned Serving Orphans from the Holocaust in Israel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RWANDA, June 23, 2009...“I feel like it’s a miracle to come to the Village to live, because I was in a bad life. I don’t have parents. I don’t have a family. I was a street child living on the streets. Now I have hope for my life,” said Marcel whose mother, father, brothers and sister were all killed. Marcel is one of the 1.2 million children orphaned by the Rwandan Genocide. Fifteen years have passed since the mass murder of nearly one million people during the course of 100 days in Rwanda.



Hope for Marcel came with the opening of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda, a special project of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), which was recently opened and will eventually house 500 high school age Rwandan orphans. The Village is modeled after Israeli youth villages which were built to serve children who lost their parents in the Holocaust.

Agahozo is the Kinyarwanda word for “a place where tears are dried,” and Shalom is Hebrew for “live in peace.” The Village is situated on 143 acres of land that overlooks Lake Mugesera in Rwanda’s Eastern Province and includes 32 group homes, a high school, science and computer labs, land for organic farming, a reforestation program, dining hall, counseling and medical facilities, and recreational fields. This comprehensive living and learning community provides security, structure, and unconditional support for young people who desperately need a healing environment. The first 125 students, whose ranks will eventually grow to 500, moved into the Village in December 2008, and now call it home.

On June 23, 2009, the opening dedication of the new youth residential and educational complex will be a day-long celebration of joy and peace. Students will perform dances, read their poetry, lead tours of the facility, and serve lunch to their guests who are dignitaries from around the world. Rwandan leaders and the Israeli Ambassador will be joined by: Agahozo-Shalom Founder Anne Heyman, Esq.; Seth Merrin, CEO of Liquidnet, JDC’s corporate partner; JDC Board member Nora Barron, and William Recant, JDC Assistant Executive Vice President. The celebration includes the planting of mango and banana trees, unveiling of a mosaic, speeches by students, and the dedication of the Edmond J. Safra Community Center, which was made possible through the generous support of Agahozo-Shalom by the Edmond J. Safra Foundation.

“Within the Jewish world, we have worked with Holocaust survivors to heal some of the psychological wounds of the past,” said JDC’s Dr. William Recant. “Yemin Orde Youth Village in Israel, one of the villages which served as homes to orphans of the Holocaust, has become a model for helping to rebuild traumatized lives. Agahozo-Shalom shares the lessons we learned from these experiences. The Village is a place where children can heal, experience renewal, and prepare for the responsibilities of adulthood. Agahozo-Shalom is a special project for us based on a shared bond of survival.”



Agahozo-Shalom reflects the principles established at Yemin Orde Youth Village of healing or repair (tikkun in Hebrew). Young people are assisted by “house mothers,” many of whom lost family members in the Genocide, mental health counselors, teachers and volunteers who all work together to heal the self and the heart (tikkun halev) and to empower the youth to heal the world by helping others (tikkun olam). The Village also serves orphans and traumatized youth who lost parents to AIDS and other causes.

Agahozo-Shalom Founder and JDC supporter Anne Heyman, said, “In November 2005, I learned that Rwanda had a tremendous orphan problem, and no systemic solution to deal with it. I was immediately struck by the fact that after the Second World War in Israel, there was a tremendous influx of orphans. And what did they do with the children? They built youth villages. This idea struck me as a potential solution for Rwanda. I couldn’t let it go, and now here we are, looking at the Village and the smiling faces of these children.”

JDC provides emergency relief and long-term development assistance worldwide with a track record in international development that lends instant credibility to the project and inspires confidence in its overseas partner organizations and governments. The non-profit organization has a 95-year history of responding quickly and effectively to crises and remaining for the long-term to guide initiatives like the Village to become self-sustaining.

In 1994, during the course of the Rwandan Genocide, nearly one million people were killed, even more people were displaced, the country was left in ruins, and, today, Rwanda has the world’s highest per capita orphan population. These children were not only robbed of their families, of their homes, and of their communities, but also of their hope for a viable future. Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village aims to be a solution to the challenge of healing these traumatized youth. This unique and ambitious special project of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee will serve as a model for caring for the disrupted lives of youth across Rwanda, Africa, and beyond, to wherever there are traumatized youth who need a place to call home.

More information can be found at http://www.agahozo-shalom.org/.

St. Louis woman, 24, uses art to help orphans in Rwanda

From the St. Louis Dispatch

University City artist Tanya Fredman packs her bags for her upcoming trip to Rwanda where she will spend the next eight months working with orphans of genocide, sharing her art in a Kigali high school. (Robert Cohen/P-D)

St. Louis woman, 24, uses art to help orphans in Rwanda

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
By Margaret Gillerman

About a month ago, Tanya Fredman was sipping coffee at a Clayton coffeehouse, animatedly discussing art, not far from the home of her parents and younger brothers in University City.

Now she is more than 8,000 miles away on a jungle hilltop in the African country of Rwanda, helping Tutsi and Hutu orphans at Agahozo Shalom Youth Village.

Fredman, 24, arrived in Rwanda on Dec. 9. Muraho! she wrote — a reassuring Rwandan language hello for her parents, Dr. Carey and Susie Fredman.

Tanya Fredman will spend eight months there, about an hour outside of Kigali, Rwanda's capital — a city depicted in "Hotel Rwanda," a movie about that country's genocide.

Almost 1 million people were murdered in Rwanda during the genocide, in which Hutu militias sought to wipe out the Tutsis and moderate Hutus. About 1.2 million orphans now live in Rwanda, the result of the genocide and AIDS.

Fredman's visit is part of a yearlong mission that she calls "Painting Hope." After graduating last spring with an art degree from Brandeis University, she signed up for a year as a volunteer with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. She's dividing her time teaching art at two world trouble spots, the Middle East and Rwanda. At both places, she is working with young refugees and orphans.

Fredman believes she can use art to help heal the hearts of the troubled youths who experienced severe traumas, such as war and genocide.

"Art can be a powerful way of looking at what they've been through and give them new perceptions," she said. "For me, art is a lot more than just colors and shapes. It's about the way people relate to the world and to other people around them. It's something deeper within."

Fredman got her taste for combining volunteering with world travel in 2006 when she spent seven weeks in Ghana with the American Jewish World Service helping build a community center. African chiefs welcomed her with blessings and she was moved by the exuberant dancing of a group of young children. She jumped in and joined them.

"We were all smiling, laughing, holding hands, I felt like I found a connection with the people there."

Fredman already feels welcome in Rwanda. The Rwandan chefs are careful to help her observe her traditions as a modern Orthodox Jew. She will live on freshly cooked meals of cassava, rice, beans and vegetables.

"They have made is quite easy for me to feel very comfortable here and are interested in learning more about why I practice religion the way I do, as many of them are very religious themselves," Fredman says.

Fredman has heard personal accounts of the genocide from counselors and house mothers.

"Most notable and difficult to understand is the desire to forgive," she said. She is optimistic about the new government in Rwanda.

"Right now there is peace," she said. "There's a new official policy to not distinguish between Hutus and Tutsis but to live together only as Rwandans. But the issues of the past are still very painful."

'GATHER US TOGETHER'

In the Yemin Orde village near Haifa, Israel, this fall, Fredman worked with children from 20 countries, including Ethiopia, Sudan, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and China. Some were refugees from Darfur. At Yemin Orde, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, she and the children created a mosaic and then a colorful mural. The mosaic's theme was: "Gather Us Together from the Four Corners of the World."

One of her most inspiring experiences at Yemin Orde was a visit from Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, a child survivor of the Nazi genocide of Jews. Yemin Orde was founded in 1953 for orphans of the Holocaust.

Men and women from Rwanda — survivors of the 1994 genocide there — visited the Israeli village that weekend. One Rwandan who addressed the children said: "Together we are going to change the world."

The Rwandan teachers led the children in clapping, singing, stamping and twirling. They explained a dance that a man does before giving the woman he loves a cow.

As the only American in Yemin Orde, Fredman was responsible for translating English rap songs and MTV news. "I did not forget to mention that being a St. Louisan I grew up near Nelly," she said.

Fredman attended grade school at Epstein Hebrew Academy in Olivette and then went to all-girls Block Yeshiva High School, graduating in 2003. After a year in Israel, she went on to Brandeis, spending a summer in Ghana and a semester in Rome.

Fredman says she's motivated by tikkun olam, a Hebrew expression meaning "to mend the world."

Through her art, she adds: "I hope I'm making it more colorful along the way."

To watch and read about Tanya Fredman's journey, see her website at http://www.tanyafredman.com/.

Agahozo Shalom Youth Village (ASYV)
A Special project of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

The Agahozo Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) aims to create a safe and structured residential community for orphaned children in Rwanda.  The village will be a place of hope where traumatized youth can "dry their tears" (Agahozo) and "live in peace" (Shalom).

Within this caring environment, the rhythm of life will be restored, so that youth who have been through great trauma will find a home and a community, as well as a place to learn and become leaders for tomorrow.  The youth who come to live and learn in the ASYV will grow into healthy adults who are not only able to care for themselves and their families, but who are also committed to making their community, their country and indeed the world a better place. 

A unique and ambitious project, the ASYV will serve as a model for caring for the disrupted lives of youth across Rwanda, Africa and beyond, to wherever there are traumatized youth who need a place to call home.

For more information about ASYV, please visit the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village website.