Over the years, Heroes School has benefited from many visiting therapists who have worked with us and our students. One volunteer was Annelies Snauwaert, an Occupational Therapist from Belgium, who completed a three month clinical placement at Heroes in 2018. When she left Heroes to return home, she went with a strong hope that she would return to Rwanda.

One of our key goals at Heroes is to give children the opportunity to develop their full potential in several domains: physical, social, cognitive, self-help, and independence. The center focuses on children with severe physical disabilities and who do not have access to education. Volunteers have been of great assistance over the years since our school was opened, as they bring expertise in these areas and work with our staff to learn new skills.

After spending time at Heroes, Annelies saw that most of our children come from vulnerable families who are not able to pay the cost of their education and therapy services we offer. While we offset these needs from different donors and friends, a great need remains for additional children to have the resources they need to access our specialized care and education services.

Once back in Belguim, Annelies recruited her whole family to help her raise funds for Heroes! And it was a very sweet way to raise money: along with her parents and boyfriend, they baked and sold more than 250 cakes and treats! Through the sales, Annelies raised over 4 Million Rwandan Francs, which is around $4,200 USD. They asked that we use the funds to provide a month-long special education program to all the children at Heroes. We will use the funds to pay a full-time Occupational Therapist and support other activities that we will share in a future blog post.

We were thrilled when Annelies and her boyfriend Jeffrey were able to recently visit us again at Heroes!

This act of kindness by a dear friend and the dedication of her family has touched our hearts here at Heroes. On behalf of our children and their parents, we would like to thank Annelies’ whole family and her friends for their kind support and for encouraging us to continue supporting children with special needs. Thank you so much!