Local drive aids Rwanda

from The London Free Press

London schools donated thousands of books for pupils in the African nation.
By KATE DALEY, SPECIAL TO THE FREE PRESS

A London woman is gathering schoolbooks for children in poor areas of Rwanda after a trip there that changed her life.

Hannah Priamo, 62, first visited Rwanda two years ago after her friend Cathy Emmerson moved to the country to work in an orphanage.

"You meet children, families and see the need," Priamo said yesterday.

On her visit to the African country, Priamo and her husband Tony brought suitcases of clothing and medical supplies at the request of her friend.

They also bought school exercise books and hundreds of pens to give to children who never had their own supplies before, she said.

Many children in Africa share an exercise book or a pen among four or five students, Priamo said.

Priamo works with Emmerson, who lives in Rwanda, on the non-profit organization PREFER -- Poverty Reduction, Education and Family Empowerment in Rwanda.

Priamo packed a crate yesterday with thousands of books for all different grades and subjects that will be shipped to Rwanda.

She contacted the London District Catholic school board, French immersion schools and French schools around London and Woodstock to fill the crates.

People were very generous with their donations and sent a variety of books for kids in the French-speaking country, she said.

"I literally received thousands."

She felt the books were needed "so that these children will actually have a better chance of making it in school.

"Education is the future to anything, anywhere in the world," Priamo said.

Many of the children grew up in families without parents since the 1994 genocide that claimed 800,000 Rwandans, Priamo said, so teaching the kids family values is just as important as education itself.

The program initially started with a goat project where the animals were given to single or no-parent families in the local community.

Priamo sends back whatever the program needs, from clothing to medicine to schoolbooks.