Iwacu Academy

When our firstborn child was reaching school going age, we became acutely aware that there was no school in our home country, Rwanda, that we could send him to that both espoused the values of our faith, and offered an excellent quality Early Childhood learning experience. Our local church had been discussing setting up a school for years, but, for various reasons, it had not materialized.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Sabbath, after a particularly powerful sermon on the significance of Adventist Education, we sat talking all afternoon, late into the night, and into the early morning, about what could be done about the situation. Shortly before the sun rose, we had taken the radical decision to start our own private, Seventh-day Adventist school with what we had in our hands (Exodus 4:2) - our small home.

One and a half years later, in January 2017, we opened the doors to our Early Childhood center, with 10 children. By that summer, we were close to full capacity, and by the next academic year, we were using all available spaces, creating outdoor learning spaces, and having to turn children away.

God has blessed our efforts, and we have received support to build a brand new, beautiful campus close by that can accommodate a full Preschool and Elementary school. We are able to run a program that:

• pursues 21st-century, skills-based learning,
• highlights the key tenets of our faith and
• provides us with a unique opportunity to witness to a generally hard-to-reach, professional demographic through school features like our Healthy meals program.

We continue to face notable challenges in finding educators and administrators who are well trained and experienced in the NAD curriculum we implement, but we trust God will continue to provide for what we need as He has done since that afternoon we made the decision to respond to His call.

 

Felicien and Irene