Category: Blog

6 Regional winners traveled to Huye in Septemebr for the 2017 edition of finals. After winning their way through from their regional tournaments TTC (Rusizi), ST Nicolas (Huye), St Trinity (Ruhango), GS Gitarama (Muhanga), ASPEKA (Kigali) and NYANZA Technical School (Nyanza) competed to become champions of Rwanda. GS Gitarama came out winners at the end of the day and all teams, coaches and officials enjoyed a fantastic day of rugby.

Please take a look at a nice article about FoRR and the charity’s journey on the CNN site :

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/08/sport/rwanda-rugby-post-genocide/

IT STARTS OUT : An estimated one million people were killed during a 100-day period, among them Tharcisse’s father and two brothers. Aged 13, he was forced to flee his home and then the supposed safe shelter of a camp to stay alive with his mother, sisters and remaining brothers. However, he has been able to slowly and steadily heal his emotional wounds thanks to an unlikely source of solace — the game of rugby. “With rugby, I feel alive,” says Tharcisse, one of the country’s first players, a former international with national side the Silverbacks, and now the general secretary of Rwandan Rugby. “I feel like I’m running to the future,” he adds. “It can bring you great joy and you don’t think about the past. When rugby started here, people were still thinking about the past, about the genocide. The game just brings so much unity with other people.”

Prior to 2001, rugby barely existed in the “Land of a Thousand Hills.” Bar the occasional game between ex-pats, it was unheard of in the East African country. Football was king, and still is — the other key sports in Rwanda being basketball, volleyball and cycling. But that all changed in 2001, with the visit of a British charity worker seeking to find a purpose in life. Emma Rees was unsure what to do after completing her university degree, and traveled to Rwanda with Voluntary Service Overseas. She started throwing around a rugby ball with school kids, and has since become a sort of modern-day William Webb Ellis — the schoolboy credited as being rugby’s original founder in the 1820s — for one particular country. Rees first took the game to schools, and the following year the Ministry of Sport granted approval for the formation of the Rwandan Rugby Federation. Two years later the Friends of Rwandan Rugby charity was formed………..

FoRR is delighted to work with a range of groups across the country. It is particularly special to work with some of the most disadvantaged youth to bring them some joy and belief that they are part of our wonderful rugby community. Recently we received this note from Sean Jones who is the executive director of the Rwandan Orphans Project:

Dear FoRR team,

I just wanted to express our gratitude for allowing our boys to participate in Saturday’s rugby tournament here in Kigali. Our boys were so excited when they left our center that we could hear them shouting and singing on the bus for quite a while as the they drove down the road. Our boys took second place overall and when I arrived at the ROP Center this morning they all rushed to me to show me their shiny medals. They were so proud and happy and I can’t thank you all enough for giving them that opportunity. Thanks also for providing the transportation and snacks for them after the tournament. We’re so appreciate of our partnership with you and thankful for your support over the years. I would also like to thank Kamanda for being such a great role model for our kids and such a wonderful ambassador for your organization. Our boys really love him and he is very, very good with them.

FROM FoRR program manager:

The tournament went well but unfortunately ES NYARUTOVU didn’t participate because of their Headmaster, who is not organized.

The teams were divided into the two following pools

Pool A: ET MUKINGI, ACEJ KARAMA, RUSHAKI COLLEGE, EAV KABUTURE.

POOL B: GS St FAMILLE, APICUR, ETO GITARAMA.

The teams played each other in their pools and 4 teams qualified into the semi finals including:

ET MUKINI 35 VS APICUR 0 and GS St FAMMILLE 33 VS EAV KABUTARE 5

The final match ended with a victory to ET MUKINGI 24 – 12 as the winning team of FoRR 2014 Schools seven-a-side tournament.

The games were refereed by the RDO`s and were kindly assistance by Andrew Kettlewell (International Referee) from the UK.

The event attended by the President of Rwandan Rugby Federation who presented the trophies to the Winning team.

After 8 weeks of intensive coaching sessions delivered by 4 of our rugby development officers the trainee teachers of TTC Mururu have an opportunity to further enhance their understanding of rugby by participating in their first fixture. FoRR has facilitated the movement of the whole squad on a road trip to compete against CEFOTEC this Saturday. Although it is an epic 8 hour round trip to compete there is great enthusiasm by the group to put into practice skills that they have recently learnt. We hope this experience will kindle a passion for rugby that these teachers will then carry throughout their careers and pass onto classes on Rwandan school children!

Oxford University recently got in touch and wanted to help with a huge kit donation for Rwanda. FoRR was delighted to receive the first batch from these wonderful guys. See below a little article from their website. Full version is at http://www.ourfc.org/NewsItem.aspx?ID=2188

The annual summer ‘clear out’ of cupboards, kit rooms, changing rooms etc. at Iffley Road harvested a vast array of kit which thanks to the help of George Merry from local club Alchester RFC, will make it’s way to Rwanda. The kit collected included balls, bibs, water bottles, playing kit, casual kit, boots and kicking tees. For further information on how the kit will be used or if you wish to donate any from your club, then please click on the link below: http://friendsofrwandanrugby.org.uk

In August 2013 Keith Wallace contacted Friends of Rwandan Rugby to find out more about our organisation and see if there were ways that he could help FoRR and rugby generally in Rwanda. Throughout the past 11 months during countless phone calls and almost a hundred emails this partnership is a week away from starting to deliver the fruits of that labour. Keith will be travelling to Rwanda with approximately 200kgs of rugby equipment. He will be there as part of a tour organised by the King Penguins, a group of “mature” rugby players that compete in matches and promote the training of youngsters in the skills of rugby as well as providing coaching to the communities they visit. In addition to this immediate injection of materials the infrastructure and finance has been developed to seek and employ an administrator for the Federation of Rwandan Rugby. This full time salaried position will enable the Federation of Rwandan Rugby to drive towards developing the game across Rwanda and its goal of securing full member status from the IRB. Applications for the position will be opened shortly and once in place the Administrator will orchestrate the various component of the sport in collaboration with the existing six FoRR rugby development officers under the overall control of the committee of the Federation of Rwandan Rugby. FoRR is delighted to have facilitated this sponsorship by the King Penguins to increase the capacity of the Federation of Rwandan Rugby and looks forward to improved delivery of competitions and opportunities for all Rwandan rugby players as a result.

In early May 2014 FoRR received  contact from a VSO volunteer, Glyn Watkins. He had been working out in the west of Rwanda closely associated with TTC Mururu. The TTC stands for Teacher Training College.  You can imagine our excitement at the prospect of being invited into this environment to deliver regular weekly coaching sessions to a wide range of teachers that will eventually be placed in schools all across the country. Quickly a plan was developed and a proposal created that will see FoRR rugby development officers travelling the 6 hour journey out to Rusizi on a rotational basis, staying 2 nights and delivering a sequence of sessions and workshops to empower Rwandan teachers with rugby skills and knowledge. The pilot program has been assigned funding to proceed for 8 weeks and it is hoped upon evaluation this project can become an embedded part of the FoRR delivery strategy. We thank Glyn for his wonderful enthusiasm and look forward to creating strong ties with TTC Mururu long into the future. Below is a photo from the first session. So many showed up he had to turn people away!

FoRR is delighted to be providing Rwandan rugby development officers to develop Rwandan teachers who will in turn teach Rwandan students the joys of rugby. Rugby development officer Mathieu Muvunyi was the first FoRR staff member to make the journey out to TTC Mururu and reports received indicate the launch of the program has been a wonderful success

The middle of the year is an exciting time for rugby in Rwandan schools. Throughout the next month four tournaments will be played across the country. These regional tournaments on the back of two held last month collectively serve to select the regional champions. These regional champions then travel to the capital to compete in the national schools championship of Rwanda. In total the 6 tournaments fully organised, officiated and funded by Friends of Rwandan Rugby will see 36 schools compete to be crowned champions of Rwanda.