Q1 2025 UPDATE

A community-driven, ceramics haven

By Phillip Mulari Apr 1, 2025

A NEW YEAR, RENEWED DRIVE!

We kicked off the New Year 2025 with a sense of renewed commitment and drive. We want to make an even bigger impact on the children we serve and our community at large. We are focusing on 3 pillars this year that we hope will shape our work and impact moving forward;

1. Serving the children in our care in deeper ways, preparing them for the wider whole, and setting them up to thrive
2. Deepening our roots as an integral part of our community, to provide a sustainable, long term impact
3. Engaging, and building the Hope Shines family, donors, and friends of the organization, bringing them closer to the work

Serving The Children

Equipping for the wider world		We care about their Education
Our approach incorporates soft skills which are usually not emphasised in formal school settings. Communication skills, computer literacy skills, critical thinking and analysis skills all play a very crucial role in the world we live in today. Equipping our youth with these allows them to thrive in this new fast paced world.		Education has helped to unlock immense value and opportunity in the world! Educating our youth is a fundamental pillar in the work that we do. We don’t want to leave any child behind. With an emphasis on education, paired with career guidance we are setting up our youth to succeed and thrive in their endeavors.

“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

— Malcolm X, Renowned Civil Right Activist

Engaging with our Community

As the famous saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. Our approach is the embodiment of this saying. We strive to be engaged in our community, because our community partners with us to raise responsible young women and men, who are the future of our country. We engage with our community in various ways, some of which are mentioned below

• Contribute to communal fundraising to help pay for health insurance for the most vulnerable in our community. For consecutive years we have contributed to the communal interventions to help those in our community who cannot afford to pay for health insurance.
• We participate in communal activities like Umuganda, Inteko (a community gathering to discuss community developmental activities, solve disputes,
• We invite and engage community members in Hope Shines sharing activities like Thanksgiving sharing events, Christmas season sharing events. We also participate in National events like Independence and Liberation day celebration, Heroes day celebration, Umuganura sharing day among others.

Engaging and Building the Hope Shines family

Over the past couple of years, we have enjoyed the support of various organizations, businesses and individuals. We are encouraged to give our best, make the necessary sacrifices to ensure this work is successful. We strive to be transparent in our work, to ensure our supporters know what is happening in the organization. We also commit to being responsive and engaging when we are contacted by our friends and supporters. We hope to achieve this in the following ways;

Building relationships between Sponsors and Children

Through the exercise of letter writing between the sponsors and the children, we hope that that builds a connection between the sponsors and the children. When successful, this kind of connection can lead to a boost of confidence and hope for the sponsored children, as well as a sense of fulfilment for the sponsor.

Meet and Greet Events with supporters and friends

Events for meet and greet activities allows for a deeper connection between the Hope Shines staff and the organisation’s friends and supporters. These events help to give information about the organisation, grow the organisation support base and allow for networking and exchange of ideas.

Online Engagements

We are thrilled to announce that our online engagement has improved significantly. We have seen a rise in the number of people engaging and interacting with our content on our social media platforms. We encourage you to stay connected so that you can follow the work on an ongoing basis. We also ask you to like, share, comment and subscribe to our online platforms. This engagement allows the algorithm to put us at the top of the various platforms, which in turn allows us to reach more people.

We invite you to join our growing online community. Visit our website, www.hopeshines.org , attend an event. Follow us on social media to stay updated on our latest activities, upcoming events, and special announcements.

Thank you for being a part of our story. Learn more

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For any inquiries, please contact:

Phillip Mulari

phillip@hopeshines.org

www.hopeshines.org

https://www.youtube.com/@hopeshinesinc.rwanda4330