Alumni reach out to girls in Rwanda
Members of the first class at Gashora Girls Academy. Photo courtesy Rwanda Girls Initiative.
This past February, Shalisan Foster, ’92, and Suzanne Sinegal McGill, ’91, were 8,872 miles from home, standing on the red Rwanda soil, beaming with pride as they attended the opening of the Gashora Girls Academy—a school they created as part of their Rwanda Girls Initiative.
Founded in 2008, the Rwanda Girls Initiative is a nonprofit organization and NGO whose mission is to open a financially independent school. Besides academics, the boarding school teaches leadership and life skills to develop girls into future leaders of the small African nation.To make their dream a reality, the two Eastside moms turned to the University of Washington for help. They consulted with faculty and graduate students from the College of Education, Evans School of Public Affairs, Information School, Foster School of Business and its MBA Program, as well as Ed Taylor, the UW’s Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs. Other universities and Puget Sound-area businesses donated pro-bono architecture, legal, agricultural, engineering and accounting services.
“We were overwhelmed by how quickly leaders from the Seattle community embraced our idea,” Foster says.
For more information on the Rwanda Girls Initiative, go to www.rwandagirlsinitiative.org.