The institution now provides education, food and support to vulnerable children.
MUSANZE – When Faith Uwantege arrived in Musanze district in 2011, she was trying to run away from her own grief. Her father had died that year and Uwantege, who describes herself as a “daddy’s girl,” was struggling to cope with the loss.
A friend persuaded her to leave Kigali for a while and offered her a place to stay. Soon after, the same friend told her she was quitting her job at Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge and suggested that Uwantege takes it.
After taking up the job, what happened next would take her life in a direction neither women could have imagined.
Working at the lodge gave Faith an opportunity to see Musanze beyond the tourist experience. On her way through surrounding villages, she began noticing vulnerable children. She started talking to them, then visiting their homes.
“I would see so many children walking through the villages barefoot and my heart was moved. I stopped, asked the children where they came from. Next thing I know, I was going to their homes, buying food for them, buying notebooks and pens,” Uwantege recalls.
Faith Uwantege began with a handful of children.
At first, she was simply helping where she could. But the more children she met, the more she understood that the problem was bigger than shoes, notebooks or an occasional bag of food.
At 23 years of age, Uwantege eventually made a decision that surprised everyone. she left her job and decided to fully get involved.
While friends her age were building careers and pursuing their own futures, Uwantege was choosing a path that offered no salary, no certainty and no clear blueprint for what came next.
More than 50 children began gathering at her home every day. She taught them, but she soon realized that education was only part of what they needed. She began serving them nutritious porridge before lessons. Her first classroom was her living room.
Then she discovered something that changed the way she understood their situation. “Many of these children would have this cup of porridge as their only meal until they came back to school the next day,” she says.
Uwantege kept going, even when her own resources were stretched to the limit.
“There were so many days and nights that I thought of quitting. I think the only thing that kept me going was waking up to the children’s faces in my living room. I would sleep hungry to make sure that these children have everything,” she recalls.
The Turning Point
The children who once walked barefoot through the villages have since graduated over the years.
Then came a question she was not prepared to answer. A couple who visited the children asked inquired what she needed and offered to help her.
She had no prepared list. No funding proposal. No grand plan. “I didn’t have a straight answer, I just cried,” she says.
The couple encouraged her to find land where the work could grow. With help from local authorities, Uwantege found what she needed within three days. That piece of land became the beginning of something much bigger than the living-room classroom.
Since 2012, Uwantege says she has had the privilege of serving more than 2,800 children. What began with her responding to children she encountered in villages has grown into an institution providing education, food and support to vulnerable children.
“Today, when I walk through the school, I don’t just see classrooms. I see answered prayers,” she says. And she is not finished yet.
Uwantege now dreams of building what she calls the Village of Hope, where vulnerable children and their families can access healthcare, nutritious meals, additional classrooms, a modern library and a computer lab.
She also wants to develop the Future Keepers Conservation Club, giving children a role in protecting their environment.
The Smallest Things That Matter The Most
The first class room was her living room.
Her story, however, is not simply about what she has built. It is also about the people who chose to believe in an idea that began with one young woman helping children from her own pocket.
“If people had not believed in me I would not have come this far. If we can pull each other up through the small acts of kindness, you will never know how far this can go,” she explains.
More than a decade after arriving in Musanze to escape the pain of losing her father, Uwantege looks back at a journey she never planned. She made the first step, she says, and God did the rest.
But the children who once walked barefoot through the villages also played their part. They gave a grieving 23-year-old woman something to wake up for and, in the process, became the reason she refused to give up.
“I have learned that the smallest of things are the ones that matter the most. I have held on throughout all the storms because of these children,” Uwantege says.
Her own life changed when she lost someone she loved. Thousands of children have since found a reason to believe that their lives can change too.
Faith Uwantege
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