(October 2012)

We are very pleased to announce that the Fig Tree Foundation has awarded The Strongest Oak Foundation a grant of $10,000 to fund our internship programme in Rwanda.

 

Recognizing that there is a visible gap between education and meaningful employment in Africa, TSO developed an internship programme in which we recruit local employers to provide part-time, relevant work to our Strongest Oaks while the Oaks…

(October 2012)

Our wish for all of our Strongest Oaks is for them to become independent, both financially self-sufficient and emotionally prepared to tackle the challenges of adulthood. Our Rwandan OakJean de Dieu (JD) Tuyisenge has not only met our expectations but has exceeded them.

We are so pleased to announce that JD is our first “graduate”! We have invited him to leave…

(September 2012)

Neema has begun a one-year internship at a gift shop, the Likembe shop in Bukavu. In this job, she is learning entrepreneurial skills key to helping her eventually launch her career in selling woodworks (her primary goal). She's learning sales and customer service skills and works three days per week. This is her first job ever!

We…

Espoir has completed his university orientation and begun classes in Information Technology at the Uganda Christian University.

When our Oaks are first "adopted" by The Strongest Oak Foundation, they state a long-term objective. Espoir's objective was to "Graduate from high school and attend an English…

21st Century Education

Espoir has been accepted into the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology program at the Uganda Christian University. He excelled in his English classes, exceeding all expectations and paving the way for this significant milestone in his life. Congratulations Espoir!

(March 2012)

Further to our last update about Espoir moving to Uganda, Pastor Samuel and theKulika team assisted Espoir in getting settled in his new country and at…

Check out this Huffington Post article written by Simon Adams (Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect in New York) in which he recalls his meeting with Charles and their discussion about the Rwandan genocide.

Dear Teacher and Students 



We are an English class of 30 students from the most 

beautiful and peaceful country in Africa, Ghana. We 

are an enthusiastic class interested in doing an 

intercultural collaboration with students from your 

school. We have heard much of your country and we are 

really interested in having friends from your school 

who can really tell…

Since 2004 I’ve created a website of some kind for each class, with a discussion board – a place where students can ask questions or make comments on our class any time of day or night and get a response. I think it’s an essential component of any modern class.

When people talk about flipping their class room, the conversation seems to focus on moving certain used-to-be-classroom activities (namely chalk & talk) from class-time to home-time using videos, screencasts and podcasts.   That is one side of the flipped classroom model.

The flip-side of the model though, is what to do with the extra time created in the classroom.

Mainstream, traditional flipped-classroom advocates would have students doing their ‘homework’ in class time,…

The following is a letter sent to Stace by Steven Shyaka (Rwandan Strongest Oak since 2010), in anticipation of Stace’s visit to Rwanda in November 2011. English translations of Kinyarwanda words are given in [square brackets]. Some deletions were made for the sake of brevity and some edits made for the sake of clarity – the sentiments remain unchanged.



Amakuru [how are you] Stace?



You can’t imagine how enthusiastic I am to meet a man who brought a light to…

Congolese Strongest Oak Zingire Namegabe has begun the exciting next step toward her ultimate goal of launching her own business: an internship in advertising and sales at a bottled water manufacturer and distributor called Mugote (in Bukavu).

Zingire will gain valuable, practical business experience, building sales and…

Day 1 at We Collaborate.

Yesterday Kieran, my son, was 18 months old and I received a late-but-expected Christmas gift: a calendar with his pics! Today I enjoyed and share it with my mom and we both were amazed how wonderful he is and how much he looks alike his mom and dad :)

I've also posted a comment a found out in another calendar, about how antique Mexican cultures discovered mezcal-tequila and was created it by gods, very interesting way of thinking about…

Despite the political uncertainty surrounding the recent 2011 Congolese elections, TSO volunteers made the holiday season a bit brighter for impoverished youth in Bukavu, Eastern Congo. Oak Leader, Pastor Samuel Muderhwa and his wife, Faida, hosted a Christmas dinner in Bukavu, DR Congo for over 360 underprivileged youth – including several orphans. The event included a series of inspirational plays, poems and songs – mostly around social themes relevant to Bukavu including rape, tribal…

In addition to a formal education, work experience is an essential part of building a career. To this end, Steven Shyaka and his sister Jeanne Mutoni have obtained internships in their respective fields. Steven is working as a legal assistant in the Kigali-based law…