A place where tears are dried.....

Overview

If the Rwandan genocide represents the failure of the global community to act, then the ASYV represents the power of people from around the world coming together to create a solution to a serious challenge.
The ASYV will not only provide the basic human needs of food, shelter, and protection in order to meet the needs of traumatized youth still struggling with the aftereffects of genocide, but also prepare these youth to take on leadership roles in their society and enable them to move towards the mending of the world beyond them. ASYV will integrate two central elements – the living environment and the learning environment:

Living Environment

A rich, communal living environment will provide the security, structure, and unconditional support which are vital to rehabilitating orphans who otherwise would not experience any form of normative ‘family’ life. This will enable them to feel nurtured, so that they may begin the healing process, and also cultivate a strong sense of self and of social justice. The living environment will also tend to the physical needs of the youth, many of whom suffer from psychological conditions such as trauma, as well as medical conditions that include HIV/AIDS. Village buildings will be environmentally friendly to the extent possible; the Village will engage in sustainable agriculture; attention will be paid to landscaping and trees at the Village. A core element will be an on-site medical clinic, which will be a considerable asset to the Village's orphans, and also provide an important resource to others as it will be linked to the local community health clinic.

Learning Environment

The learning environment of the ASYV will focus on two complementary areas - formal and informal education. The core principles of the informal education curriculum are healing and enrichment. In addition to the therapeutic living environment, ASYV will provide individualized therapies to assist in the healing of each student. Outreach and community service programs will be an integral part of the informal curriculum, as focusing on and being engaged in helping others is a proven methodology for personal healing and leadership development. The formal education at the ASYV school, which incorporates the philosophy of the Village, will provide access to an education – and thus a future – for many who would not otherwise be able to receive it. Students will benefit from on-site computer and arts centers. They will have the opportunity to pursue vocational training, and to be awarded university scholarships.

Impact beyond the village

A strong educational system is vital to rehabilitating the younger generation. ASYV will give its students the skills they need to realize their potential as individuals and to become contributing members of society, helping to build a stronger Rwanda.
ASYV graduates will not only be able to care for themselves and their families, but will form a cadre of individuals with a strong commitment to improving their community and the world, utilizing the tools that ASYV has given them to take action and contribute towards the future of a country recovering from complete devastation.
The potential significance of ASYV reaches far beyond Rwanda, as this project has immense capacity for replication and profound impact. The comprehensive and innovative response to the trauma of the orphan and genocide experience will serve as a model for the successful integration of orphans into civil society, wherever they may be.


The Philosophy

Repairing the individual

The philosophy behind the ASYV is based heavily on the Yemin Orde Youth Village. We believe that there is a timeline in every life, so each one of the traumatized youth that comes through the ASYV has a past, a present and a future. They are in the village because there was a break between their past and their present, some traumatic event that they need to repair in order for them to live in the present and even dream about having a future.

At the village, each child will deal with that break on two levels. One is called tikkun halev, which is repairing the heart. These include individual therapies that range from music, art, or animal therapy, to seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist. Then there’s another level of therapies called tikkun olam, which is repairing the world. The notion is that the way that you heal yourself is by going out and doing for others, because whoever you are there are others less fortunate than you, and you heal yourself through doing for them.

Building on a successful model

ASYV will work in partnership with Yemin Orde and follow its successful model to further the treatment and growth of abandoned children and youth by placing them in a safe, structured environment with a rich community life, while minimizing threats and exposing them to elements of parental wholeness. Additionally, it will provide them with quality education while adequately preparing them for their future roles in society. Ethiopian Israelis, many of them graduates of Yemin Orde, are helping to bring the model to Rwanda, sharing their own personal experiences.

Focus on learning

ASYV will focus on developing students both cognitively and socially. Schooling will be geared towards university and also provide students with choices for vocational tracks. The curriculum will focus on communal participation, and encourage the spirit of volunteerism as a means for sustainable development and community enrichment. It will also seek to expand each student’s talents, skills, and capacity to become not only functioning members of society but leaders of their communities.


The History

The spark of an idea

In November of 2005, ASYV founder Anne Heyman and her husband Seth Merrin heard a talk about the Rwanda genocide by Paul Rusesabagina, the subject of the movie Hotel Rwanda. At a dinner after the talk, Seth asked Paul to identify the biggest problem facing Rwanda today. Paul replied that in a country with 1.2 million orphans – 15% of the population – there is no future for that country unless you can figure out how to help those children.

Immediately, Anne, a South African-born lawyer and mother of three living in New York City, connected the challenge of the Rwandan orphan population to the similar challenge that Israel faced after the Second World War, when there had been a large influx of orphans from the Holocaust. To care for these traumatized youth, Israel built residential living communities called youth villages. Anne was inspired to bring this model to Rwanda.

Making connections

Anne began reaching out to people in Rwanda, Israel and the United States, to share her idea and learn how to realize her vision. She met with officials at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), an international humanitarian organization, which agreed to offer logistical support for the project. The ASYV is now a special project of JDC’s non-sectarian international development program.

It takes a village

The JDC connected Anne to Dr. Chaim Peri, who runs Yemin Orde, one of the Israel youth villages on which the ASYV would come to be modeled. Established in 1953, Yemin Orde originally cared for orphans from the Holocaust, but since then has come to serve many other traumatized youth, including from South America, the former Soviet Union, and Ethiopia. Several Ethiopian Israeli graduates of Yemin Orde are now helping with the ASYV.