Barere means "nurture them" in Kinyarwanda. This past summer, we worked with 23 kids in Kibuye who had been living on the streets. By the time school started, every single one of them walked through the door.
I'm Providence. I started Barere in the summer of 2025 while I was back home in Rwanda. I kept seeing the same kids around Kibuye — out of school, on their own, getting by however they could. Most of them didn't need charity. They needed someone to sit with them, take them seriously, and help them figure out a next step.
So that's what we did. We recruited 23 kids, spent time getting to know each one of them, met their parents, and made sure they had everything they needed before the school year started — fees, uniforms, books, shoes, food. We also helped a few families get back on their feet financially, including one mother whose small business had been stolen from her.
This was our first summer. It worked. And we're just getting started.
We didn't run a one-day program. We spent the whole summer — mentoring, meeting families, buying school supplies, and making sure nothing fell through the cracks.
We sat down with each kid individually — no group speeches, no scripts. Just real conversations about where they came from and what they wanted.
Fees, uniforms, shoes, bags, books, pens, math sets, school feeding. Every kid got everything they needed to actually show up and stay.
We brought the kids together regularly so they could meet each other, eat together, and realize they weren't going through this alone.
We met with parents and guardians to get everyone on the same page. A lot of these kids needed their families involved to make any of this stick.
One mother had her fruit-selling business stolen. We helped her restart it. We gave financial support to other families who were barely getting by.
We distributed chickens to several families — a small thing that gives them food and something to sell. It keeps giving after we leave.
We set out to support 20 kids. We ended up with 23. Here's where things stand.
These 23 kids weren't a demographic. They were individual people with very different situations — different ages, different family problems, different reasons for ending up on the street.
About half came from single-parent households or homes with abuse. Three-quarters had stopped going to school simply because their families couldn't pay the fees — not because they didn't want to be there. A quarter of them had been outright sent away by their parents.
What surprised us most was how quickly they opened up once they felt like someone was actually listening. By the end of the summer, they were showing up to group sessions early.
The first summer showed us what's possible. These are the four things we're focused on next.
There are more kids in Kibuye and nearby areas who need the same support. We want to reach them next year.
This summer was mostly informal. We want to build something more structured — a curriculum that guides mentors and makes the relationships more consistent.
We want to work more closely with schools, churches, and community leaders — people who are already there year-round.
The chicken program worked. We want to expand it and find other ways to help families earn income on their own.
We're a small program run by a college student who flew back to Rwanda because he felt like he had to. If you want to support what we're doing — or just talk about it — reach out.
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