by Amelia Cheshire | May 11, 2017
It was a hard place to be a kid. Where Kevin was born and raised, in the Nyamirambo District of Kigali, many people in his community were illiterate, jobless and homeless. In the early years after the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Kevin watched as countless children turned...
by Amelia Cheshire | Mar 28, 2017
Primary school taught Grace a lesson she would learn over and over again: she was a minority. In the village in Eastern Rwanda where she grew up, girls weren’t encouraged to go to school. As Grace remembers it, girls made up only 20 percent of her primary class....
by Amelia Cheshire | Mar 23, 2017
They thought the world had forgotten them — and in some respects, the world had. Kiziba Refugee Camp is home to nearly 20,000 Congolese Refugees.After fleeing their homes in DR Congo due to a violent civil war in 1997, nearly 20,000 people sought safety in...
by Amelia Cheshire | Feb 21, 2017
They were born into trying times. Jackie was barely 3 years old when her family made the journey back home, returning from Uganda where they were refugees during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. They settled in a village in eastern Rwanda. From a small piece of land,...
by Amelia Cheshire | Jan 13, 2017
In Rwanda, bucura is the word for last born child. It can also mean cherished and beloved. Jessica is a bucura — the youngest of 7 children in her family. By the time Jessica’s older sisters were married, Jessica was only a teenager, but tradition said she was...
by Amelia Cheshire | Jun 28, 2016
“That’s a man’s job,” people told her — a daily routine of pre-dawn wake up calls to build chicken coops, carrying baskets of eggs for door-to-door sales, late nights spent analyzing the cost of feed. It was a path Scovia’s family and friends weren’t expecting...
by Amelia Cheshire | Apr 17, 2016
It was a long walk to school – down dirt roads, past bikers and cars, during rainstorms and under the hot sun. For Berthine, the dozens of kilometers spent walking to school each week were worth it. She would have walked a dozen more each day, if she had to. In...
by Amelia Cheshire | Mar 31, 2016
The story wasn’t supposed to go this way. Benson’s parents were cattle raisers in DR Congo — proud herdsmen who assumed their son would follow in their footsteps, to someday wear the rounded felt hat – the sign of a successful rancher. But things changed...
by Amelia Cheshire | Mar 15, 2016
Since Alice became a These Numbers Have Faces scholar in 2014, we’ve watched her rise to the top of her University classes, represent Rwanda at an international engineering conference in India, and develop her leadership skills at the Africa Youth Leadership Forum in...
by Amelia Cheshire | Jan 20, 2016
If you were to ask people across the globe about their top fears, statistics show that 50-percent would respond “Public Speaking.” Pascaline would have answered the same. Pascaline is one of our Computer Science scholars in Rwanda. While she was ready to tackle the...
by Amelia Cheshire | Dec 9, 2015
At These Numbers Have Faces, we’re passionate about empowering the next generation of leaders in Africa. During our monthly trainings for our scholars, the topic of leadership is always on the table. Like Cory Baker said, we believe “leadership is not a position or a...
by Amelia Cheshire | Oct 21, 2015
Like we’ve mentioned in the past, we know who run the world. Girls! It’s no surprise that our Rwanda program is a staff of five brilliant, confident, and inspiring women. During a time when we are investing in top quality university students and high impact...
by Amelia Cheshire | Apr 7, 2015
In light of the recent attack at Garissa University in Kenya, and the 21st anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, Tina, our Director of International Programs, reminds us that we are not numbers or statistics. Each of us has a story. It’s raining outside my window and...
by Amelia Cheshire | Mar 16, 2015
Arnold was just a young boy when his father died. He has no memories of him – just photos. Soon after his father’s death, Arnold’s mom left to find work and he moved in with his grandmother. Even though Arnold felt the loss of his father, and the distance from...
by Amelia Cheshire | Mar 4, 2015
She wrapped her fingers around the plastic handle of a green rolling bag. Alice had never owned a suitcase before. And until then, she had no need for one. For 18 years, Alice and her family have been living in a mud hut in the Gihembe Refugee. After violence forced...
