Anglican Bishop Hoping for School's Financial Recovery

Most of the students at Sonrise School who lost one or both parents during the horrific Rwandan genocide, claiming over 1 million lives 20 years ago, are now enrolled in upper grades or have graduated. Nearly 100 are earning college degrees, including 40 in the United States and two locally.

But Sonrise, founded in 2001 as a boarding school in the mountainous district of Musanze to care for orphans of the genocide, is still asked to admit needy children of a different kind into its lower grades. Parents of the students have died, abandoned them, or can no longer care for them because of HIV/AIDS or other diseases, and students are admitted without payment or sponsors.

"They give them to us, not in great numbers as in 2001 or 2003, but they do come because they know that the school cares and provides," said the Rt. Rev. Dr. Laurent Mbanda, Bishop of the Shyira Diocese in the Anglican Church of Rwanda, speaking Nov. 9 at a benefit sponsored by Church of the Redeemer, 1731 Deerfield Road, Highland Park. Held by one of the Sonrise founders at Highwood Bocce Club, nearly $27,000 was raised at the fundraiser.

"It is good to be known for that - that we take care of kids spiritually and socially - plus we perform very well in the country," he said.

Due to difficulty in finding sponsors, coupled with a new government regulation limiting boarding school enrollment, one of Rwanda's top-ranked schools has been challenged financially, according to Mbanda.

Mbanda told over 100 in attendance that the government restricted boarding school enrollment to children aged 10 years and older, contributing to a reduction in admissions even though employment of the teaching staff remained the same.

"We could not let the teachers go away in the middle of the academic year," he said.

To offset the difference, the school acquired a bus to pick up and drop off children in first through third grades for a day school program. Although it has limited potential enrollment to just over a 6-mile radius of the primary school, compared to receiving students from across the country, Mbanda said he supports the new regulation.

"I think it's a good policy because the principal behind it is for parents to keep children with them when the children are still moldable. At the same time, for parents who don't have enough time for their children, it's difficult."

Founded for the purpose of caring for the educational, spiritual, and physical needs of some of the 400,000 genocide orphans who lost parents, siblings and extended family members, half of the student body at Sonrise was previously tuition-based.

Consistently scoring among the top five schools in Rwanda's national exam program, and placing graduates in leading global universities, the school's mission included excellence in education and redemption of their country, with hopes that the new generation would rebuild Rwanda.

Now only about 40 orphans of 120 students represent annual enrollment in the lower grades. The high school enrollment, 160, typically does not offer sponsorship. Of the 720 total registration, 340 students attend the first to sixth grade primary school and 380 attend the high school.

"Now we are taking less of the children that need our help because we do not have enough sponsors," said Mbanda, "so we have many children in the pipeline that are waiting for sponsors. It limits us as to how many we can take. In the last three years, we have been taking a third of the children we admit each year."

Mbanda said breaking even is difficult because some students are accepted before sponsors are located. He states his greatest needs as: finding sponsors for 115 orphans, at $1,000 each, and obtaining an 18-seat van, at $45,000, that would provide transportation for more students.

Currently, it takes the school bus three rounds to pick up and deliver all of the younger day students to the school. The third group is challenged to make it to classes on time.

"This will help our enrollment quickly because we have transportation to bring students to school," said Mbanda, who is hoping to record financial recovery, beginning January, 2015, because more neighborhood residents will be familiar with the primary day school program.

Mbanda noted successes the school has had this year. Four of the top computer science students in Rwanda came from Sonrise, he said. As a reward for their performance, they received a laptop or iPad.

Also, as the school has performed well, other schools "will look at us and then come and try to take our teachers. That happens, and we are happy to share," he said laughing.

The Bishop told Church of the Redeemer benefactors he was impressed with Sonrise graduates Richard Ndekezi, who is currently studying at Wheaton College as a scholarship recipient, and Joris Cyizere, a Northwestern University engineering dean's scholar.

Speaking at the benefit, Ndekezi noted that "Sonrise has (made) a huge impact," in Rwanda and said that it is one of the few schools that is Christ-centered, private and yet outperforms other schools academically.

As a child, Ndekezi was taken in by Sonrise School where he recovered from memories of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and adjusted to his life as an orphan. In 2010, he became the valedictorian responsible for leading over 600 of his classmates at the nation's then first-ranked secondary school.

Cyizere, currently attending the NU McCormick School of Engineering, was a member of the first graduating class at Sonrise as a tuition-based student.

"People lost families and Sonrise filled the gap," he said about the difference Sonrise has made for the country. Because of the connection with others from Sonrise, "we see what it is like working together, not just as one person," Cyizere added.

Both keep in touch with other Sonrise graduates attending universities in the United States and abroad.

"It's a lifetime 'sisterhood/brotherhood,'" said Ndekezi.

For more information about Sonrise School, visit redeemernorthshore.org/global/sonrise, or redeemernorthshore.org/global/sonrise, to make a donation.

• To submit Your news with one photo, go to dailyherald.com/share. To submit Your news with multiple photos, send it to nbrcalender@dailyherald.com.