Vumbi Primary School

The small village of Vumbi is situated in what is quite possibly one of the most beautiful places in Rwanda – on the shores of Lake Kivu in the Western Province. Vumbi Primary school has an enrollment of about 1,400 students, with about 80-100 students in each classroom. Classrooms are so crowded that students sit outside to take exams so they can't look at each other's tests and cheat (as shown in the picture below). Vumbi Primary School sits on top of a hill and overlooks the lake and coffee farms below. The school also has about 500 coffee trees which the students take care of. Each harvest season they sell the coffee cherry to Caferwa Coffee Washing Station at Nkora and use the money to buy school supplies or repair the buildings.

Most of the students at Vumbi are primary school students; however, some classrooms are being used to teach the first three years of secondary school as well. Early this year, the Ministry of Education decided that some of the rural primary schools should be teaching the first three years of secondary school until more secondary schools are established and built. Currently, not every village has a secondary school, so many students have to walk 2-5 km to find the nearest one. Also, many secondary schools are private boarding schools and too expensive for the average child. These factors prove to be too challenging for many students and they simply forgo continuing their education. The Ministry’s decision is helping to ensure that more children have access to education and a chance to continue their studies. At Vumbi, our Community Aid Program built an additional 5 classrooms at the primary school (pictured below), finishing construction in May 2009 with the help of the community and Caferwa Coffee Washing Station. This new building will help alleviate the over crowed classrooms and provide a better learning environment for the students as well as accommodate some of the secondary school classes already being taught at the school.