I knew I was dealing with a special group of university students when all the students arrived at least 15 minutes early for their interviews. By the end of the day, I was so impressed with all of the students that I had interviewed, that it was very difficult to select just five for the available focus group technician positions.

Over the coming months we will be learning more about programming and book needs in the Rwinkwavu community by running a series of focus groups. Simon Mvunabandi, our fantastic Orphans of Rwanda (ORI) intern, and I will be working with a team of five other ORI scholars to conduct the groups. ORI provides university tuition, housing, healthcare, counselling and supplementary training including extensive language training to over 180 orphans and other vulnerable young Rwandans. We are very excited to be working with ORI on this project.

One week after the interviews, Console, Diane, Justine, Tharcisse, Yassin, Simon and I met for a training session. Things started with an explanation of the focus group concept and then moved into specific tools needed to lead effective focus group sessions. Throughout the training session, I continued to be impressed with the ORI students’ enthusiasm for the project. When we ran practice sessions with the questions Simon and I had developed, the students’ input was invaluable.

The focus groups will allow us to hear from community leaders, primary students, health care professionals, teachers, grandparents, social workers and other community groups over the course of several weeks. Working with the ORI students enables us to conduct the groups in Kinyarwanda. This, we hope, will create a comfortable environment that will make communication relaxed and the sharing of ideas easy. It will also ensure that we hear from community members who don’t have a voice in English or French. These groups stand to benefit tremendously from the center, and it is important that we hear from them. I can hardly wait!!

Katie Uher

Allen and I have arrived once again in Rwanda! The most direct flight takes us through Brussels and then non-stop to Kigali and always lands after dark. As our plane approached the airport we could see that the radius of street light illumination and electricity in homes in the city has grown noticeably since our last trip just this past March. Another development is MTN’s extension of its service to include email delivery on Blackberries. The next day as we headed to our meeting with US Ambassador Stuart Symington I saw billboards all over Kigali adverting the merits of owning one. Two high-rise buildings that were in the skeletal phase of construction in March have filled out nicely and I am sure next trip, several months from now, will be close to finished. I hardly recognize the hillsides of Kigali each time I return. Old shantytowns comprised of mud huts with bent and rusted red corrugated roofs, large plots of banana trees and other crops and livestock are disappearing from the city. It’s hard to doubt the Rwandan government’s commitment and ability to deliver long-term development and growth given what I have seen not only in the city but in the rural areas as well. The aim is to bring improvements in infrastructure to all areas of the country to build a strong, stable middle class. Back in January 2006 on my first drive to Rwinkwavu ( 2 hours east of Kigali near the Tanzanian border) there were few electrical lines and no street lights en route. Now the grid extends the whole way along the main road (paved) and you can see that it has begun to reach down some of the smaller secondary dirt roads. Old houses are being replaced by new with well-kept yards filled with flowers and shrubs. In Kabarondo, where we turn off the main road for the 15 kilometer drive down a well graded dirt road to reach Rwinkwavu, all the buildings in the commercial district have gotten a facelift with fresh coats of paint in mint green, caribbean blue, watermelon and pumpkin. All signs that hope has returned.