Hope Haven Case StudyBy: Lucas Jones

History of Rwanda

As a country, Rwanda had split between two different ethnic groups called the

Hutus and the Tutsis. In the past there were few differences between the two groups other

than physical appearance. Though through this minor difference, the Belgian presence in

the country propagated an ethnic divide by handing out identity cards based on nose

length and eye measurements. The division brewed hostility between the two ethnic

groups that resulted in simultaneous blame and resentment. Because of their power, the

Tutsis oppressed the Hutu community for some time by influencing political and

economic decisions that exploited their power over the Hutus. The Hutu community

recognized their oppression and blamed the Tutsis for the economic and political issues

that Rwanda was facing at the time. Because of this ethnic split, tension rose between the

two groups with little involvement from outside countries. On April 6, 1994 a boiling

point was reached when the Hutu President, Habyarimana, was shot down from the sky.

The Hutu extremists immediately began an attempt to wipe out the Tutsi population.

Fights began between the Rwandan military and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (a group of

Tutsi officers), which resulted in the deaths of 800,000-1,000,000 people over a span of

100 days. During this time, the government was run by an extremist group of Hutu Power

leaders who exercised complete control over the people of Rwanda. Powerful countries

like Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the United States sat idly by while one of the

biggest genocides of the twentieth century took place. The Tutsi women were brutally

raped and families feared for their lives as the Hutus ruthlessly destroyed an entire race of

people. Schools and hospitals became piles of rubble as the future of the city of Kigali

grew dimmer every day. In 1994 about 100,000 children were separated from their

families. They became orphans in a country with no promise of security or reformed

structure.

After the genocide, the country had little hope of a prosperous future and faced

possible decades of societal reparations due to racial differences, an economic downturn,

and changes in political power. The country began the road to restoration with the

installation of President Paul Kagame. Kagame acknowledged the internal state of decay

within Rwanda and therefore chose people with an education outside the country to serve

in government positions. The new government pushed for no corruption by holding trials

to address those responsible for the genocide. Through these changes, his political regime

called for reconciliation and responsibility. In the year 2000 Kagame started a plan called

the 2020 vision, which consisted of 6 pillars. These pillars represent a list of goals that

the country was to focus on over the next 20 years that included: good governance,

agricultural transformation, advancement in science and technology, gender equality,

environmental and natural recourse management, and the development of a private

sector. This vision is the framework in which the government wishes to see the country

operate and can be achieved only through proper education.

Education is the gateway to monetary success and the prevention of a history that

repeats itself. Today schools are the most important tool to empower the next generation

with the ability to reduce the poverty rate, stimulate the economy, and understand the

mistakes that were made in the past in order to prevent a genocide from ever destroying

the country of Rwanda again. Among the many things that the country has put in place to

reconstruct a sufficient economy, schools are being built rapidly to meet the needs of

children across the country. The government supports the construction of new

educational facilities and encourages the advancements of education for the citizens of

Rwanda. Above all they want their citizens to understand the steps that need to be taken

to help Rwanda become an economic leader among the surrounding countries. The

president Paul Kagame is persistent in his attempt to expand education not only by

increasing the quantity of schools, but also by improving the quality of education

provided to the people.

Hope Haven Rwanda

Hope Haven is a family/community-oriented ministry that recasts a vision to

empower families to thrive in their economy in order to become job providers

rather than job seekers. This academic facility sits on approximately 10 acres of land

on the side of a hill that rests in a village called Murindi. The focus of the ministry is

to provide education to children who would otherwise not have an opportunity to

go to college. Much aligned with the 2020 vision and 6 Pillars that President Kagame

represents, Hope Haven pushes for advancement in agriculture, entrepreneurship,

gender equality, and overall economic advancement. Though perhaps most

importantly, Hope Haven strives to empower the Rwandan people by giving them a

vision for the future that starts with the students, but ripples outward to impact

families in the surrounding community. This is accomplished by teaching the

students occupational skills such as agriculture, computer technology, and literacy

in English and Kinyarwanda languages. Though integrated with these occupational

teachings, the ministry’s platform introduces entrepreneurship in their daily lives.

The written vision of Hope Haven is “to change the world one family at a time.” This

vision is vital in changing the infrastructure of the typical home from surviving daily,

to thriving in their health and finances while securing a hopeful future. The school

currently provides education from a nursery level to the third grade. Though they

currently plan to expand to the sixth grade one level at a time. They also offer

vocational training for adults in the surrounding community to empower the heads

of families to make economically sound decisions for their children. The current goal

for the Hope Haven ministry is to not only have 100% of the students pass the

National Exam for secondary school, but to have them take the next step in their

education by attending secondary school as well. Providing education for Murindi is

the primary focus of Hope Haven; though due to its presence the ministry is able to

influence the people in the surrounding community in many other ways.

Infrastructure and Operations within the Community

Susan Hollern, founder of Hope Haven, has organized the ministry in the U.S. as a

501(c)(3) public charity. Though in Rwanda the school is organized as a business.

Susan Hollern says, “I have the right to bring in the money from my listed non-profit

in the states, but as far as in Rwanda, I have full control of the sustainability over

Hope Haven.” Because Kagame is pushing capitalism and economic growth,

registering for a 501(c)(3) in the city is difficult. Therefore Susan has found a way to

raise money for an important cause and operate the school in the form of a business

instead. The business model allows future sustainability projects to fund the school.

Rwanda is also against “hand-outs” in the form of fundraising, which suggests that

the business model is a better fit within the culture that the government is pushing

for the country. Along with donations, Hope Haven survives on fees for their

services that are affordable for this community. This helps empower the poor

because they are provided with the opportunity to earn their education. Handouts

for education do not help the community understand the purpose of earning and

creating jobs. While working within this model, Hope Haven has seen the

community take responsibility for their families’ well-being and will continue to

push an entrepreneurial drive amongst the community.

Nate Kempton was then hired as an onsite director to ensure that operations

and education are going as planned on a daily basis. Kempton lives on campus so

that all problems that arise can be handled hands on before being properly

communicated to Susan back in the United States. In the last three years Nate has

become extremely familiar with the city by making meaningful relationships with

the people of Kigali. Nate takes time to create personal relationships, bid the jobs

within construction scope, with multiple people at multiple times. This ensures

ethical transactions, especially in the construction process. Communication and

awareness within this community is important in making the right and lasting

decisions for the school. These relationships have been crucial in the success of

Hope Haven and continue to have a lasting impact on Nate and Susan’s ability to

continue with their vision for the school.

The School

Hope Haven currently operates today with a nursery and three primary

grades (3 year olds-3rd Grade). The goal is to keep expanding until the sixth primary

grade is reached and students are adequately prepared for secondary school. Hope

Haven follows the government school year schedule of three terms. For each term, a

student is required to pay 15,000 Franks (or $21.00) to attend classes. This offers a

new opportunity to the families of the students. Hope Haven allows the families who

struggle to afford payments to work in substitution. For example, moms and dads

can work in agricultural fields to help support their children through school. This

gives the families a unique opportunity to learn new trades and be more equipped

to develop a vision for future success. A full curriculum is being prepared for these

parents to partake in learning in depth permaculture practices. Simultaneously, the

parents are working to earn school fees and a take-home salary, which will improve

the quality of their daily lives. Hope Haven has also found that allowing the parents

to work together helps develop a community between families who would not

normally communicate with one another. When the parents are working on the

grounds of Hope Haven there is a feeling of ownership that comes with the work.

This has helped develop loyalty within the community that makes the school less

susceptible to theft and crime. In this way, Hope Haven is seeing an impact in the

community and that transcends their involvement with its students. So far the

community has been extremely receptive of all the opportunities that Hope Haven

has to offer and is working in unison with the school to see that its expansion

continues smoothly in the years to come.

Schools and churches in America are also beginning to back the vision by

sending out professional teachers to come alongside the educators of Hope Haven.

The outside American involvement helps to provide the educators with skills that

will help the advancement of the students and their families. Teachers onsite attend

one hour training sessions after school twice a week to advance their skills in the

classroom. With these skills, the teachers will also hold night classes for adults and

children to help teach families in the community about business and financial

stability. Adults learning vocational skills at Hope Haven will then be able to take

these skills and apply them in every day life to pursue monetary and vocational

success. This is how Hope Haven has successfully aligned their vision with that of

President Kagame’s 6 Pillars. Integration with the government is extremely

important in order to create a lasting impact on the communities of Rwanda. Hope

Haven has found a way to do this for the students and their families as a whole.

Instilling Hope Haven’s vision within the parents and families creates a unified

vision in the home that dramatically increases the chances of a child’s future

success. By doing these things, Hope Haven can truly see a marginal impact one

family at a time and drastically change the future economy of Rwanda in a positive

way.

Finances and Fundraising

Initially in 2011, The Hollern family felt that it was prudent to use family resources

to begin Hope Haven. There were three sole reasons for this decision to initially self-

fund. The first reason was the chance that the concept could potentially fail. It was

important to the Hollern family that the concept succeeded before they started to

use others’ money as a source of funding. The second reason was that the project of

Hope Haven could advance quicker without taking the time for initial fundraising.

Finally, the family felt that fundraising would be much easier when the project was

provable and showed large potential for growth. Looking back, Susan recognized

that this strategy helped provide Hope Haven with a head start that gave her the

confidence to begin fundraising for what would become a growing success.

In September of 2012 (9 months later), a fundraiser was held so that Susan

could share her vision for Hope Haven. Architects were present to talk about

structures and people were extremely receptive to what she had to say. At the end

of the event, $22,000 was raised for the institution that was educating 90 kids at the

time. Following the event, a volunteer named Abbey Pint began marketing for Hope

Haven and was later hired to continue her work filming on site in Rwanda. She put

together media that helped describe the vision and the impact that Hope Haven was

already having on the community from people visiting. In 2013, Abbey’s media

productions had sparked an awareness that brought in many donations that helped

further the construction of the school. With awareness rising, people began to seek

involvement in any way they could. Valor Christian High School began sending

teams of teachers and students over to Kigali to help with construction and

education. Having an American presence in the community of Murindi benefited the

teachers at the school who began to learn new ways of education. In 2014 Susan

began to approach fundraising with a new vigor by pushing her vision on people in

the states that understood the importance of education. Luncheon fundraisers and

phone calls were made to ask for financial help from people who had shown

interest. This resulted in the largest collection of donations than in any prior years.

This allowed for large structural advancements on the property that included an

increase in classrooms and dormitories that provided housing for consultants from

other countries to help train the current staff in new ways to approach education.

These dormitories also provide areas to train Rwandans from the government

schools around Rwanda. Hosting these teachers helps facilitate the on-site training

of the local teachers and impacts the quality of education across the entire country.

Challenges

In the last 4 years Susan has ran into many challenges. Fundraising has

proven to be difficult on her own. Expressing the importance of Hope Haven is most

impactful when others understand its vision in the United States. Susan said that

the most important aspect of fundraising is to “get people who love Hope Haven, to

talk about Hope Haven.” This is a good representation of why advertising her vision

was stressed to be so important. “People outside of myself need to encourage others

and get the word out. It is most important for people to spread the word and get

people excited about the vision.” Awareness is best raised when other people

understand and get excited about the vision and purpose that Hope Haven is

pursuing. She has seen success in the Denver area where she lives with her family,

though is eager to spread the vision to people outside the state of Colorado. To have

a full lasting impact on the community of Murindi and Rwanda as whole, people

from all over the United States need to get behind Hope Haven.

Another complication that Hope Haven has run into is hiring the right people

for the right jobs. The school’s development in 2015 is solely dependent on hiring

the right people on site. It is important that the employees are in sync with Hope

Haven’s vision. Susan wants on site employees that work well together and

communicate with her well. Communication is key in the success of Hope Haven.

Conflict is frequent during the infancy of expansion and can be handled poorly if

issues are not properly communicated. One recurring issue in Rwanda is how

efficiently people use their time. When hiring, an analysis of how a person utilizes

their time is key in ensuring future projects will be completed by their deadlines.

Many organizations and companies in the city run slowly, so having employees that

are persistent and timely is also necessary in the development stage.

Finally, the most important aspect of running Hope Haven is funding. Susan

said that making sure the right people are in charge of fundraising determines the

speed at which Hope Haven achieves its vision. It is difficult to have the right people

in positions to help people get excited about what an important difference the

school is having on a community that is underdeveloped. Fundraising is primarily

about getting people behind a vision financially. Once this is accomplished,

individuals can see the potential difference that their finances are making in the

world and will be more inclined to give. Displaying the impact that Hope Haven is

having through meetings and media is the lifeblood of raising money. Making sure

that the people who are in charge of these two things are aligned with the correct

vision and communicate frequently with Susan and her staff is proving to be a

challenge. When these factors are perfectly aligned, fundraising becomes less

stressful and more impactful.

Future Involvement

Susan plans on developing a governing board full of trusted and experienced

members that can help with the expansion and progression of Hope Haven. There is

also a plan to hire professional developers that help with fundraising and spreading

awareness. The opportunity at hand is large and promising. With the proper people

backing the ministry, it will continue on to be more impactful.

Hope Haven wants to develop further until it provides the students with

education up until the sixth grade. This is the last grade before the students

continue their education at secondary school. It is very likely that the government

will push for Hope Haven to become a secondary school in future, but for the time

being there are different priorities that must be achieved before this is considered.

Expanding the school grounds is first on that list of priorities. Currently, Hope

Haven operates in 20,000 square feet with plans to expand to 50,000 square feet in

the next few years, so that it can take on three more primary grades and provide the

proper sized buildings for the amount of students that will be receiving their

education on the school grounds.

There is a great opportunity for Hope Haven to become one of the leading

schools in Rwanda in terms of educational quality and overall community impact.

The next couple years are about reaching grade six while continuing to advance the

quality of education. In this way, people will be provided the opportunity to live out

the vision that Hope Haven stands for. The impact that Hope Haven has already had

on Rwanda is powerful; though it is more powerful still to see the impact that the

school will continue to have on Rwanda in the future.