We have more requests from schools than we can manage and often the schools are too far away for our RDOs to visit. So we came up with a solution: Tag for Teachers (TFT) is a training course delivered by our RDOs to primary school teachers. As well as a full day’s course for two teachers per school, the schools receive all of the equipment they need to deliver Tag Rugby in their schools. Our RDOs still provide advice and support and when the schools are ready we organise a tournament. We are very grateful to the Bill McLaren Foundation and the Barbarians Charitable trust for funding this program.
Marion Swindle from STRAWBERRY INK has designed this fantastic booklet free of charge!
It has been busy – our team of RDOs have been working in schools with thousands of children, running trainings for teachers to deliver tag rugby, attending the annual rugby foundations tour and running tournaments!
Our ever expanding team of Rugby Development Officers
We are delighted to be welcoming four more RDOs to the FoRR family. We now have 18 RDOs working throughout Rwanda. Great to see them looking so smart in their Rhino donated kit.
Our final newsletter for 2022. We have had a fantastic year and increased our team of RDOs. We ran two very successful volunteers’ tours and have finally been able to roll out the Tag for Teachers program. Really looking forward to see what 2023 will bring!
For the first time ever we ran ‘back to back’ tours to Rwanda. Our Rugby Foundations tour was in May/early June and we worked with primary school children in Rwamagana.
The second group of volunteers arrived 5 days later. A group of 23 players, coaches, referees and trustees had a very busy 8 days. Read all about it in our second special edition newsletter!
On May 27th 8 volunteers flew to Rwanda for our 8 day Rugby Foundations tour. This year we visited Rwamagana in Eastern Province to introduce Tag rugby to Primary school children and also worked with some local secondary schools. A great time was had by everyone – read all about it in our special edition newsletter!
FoRR partnered with Umuri Foundation and their founder Jimmy Mulisa to provide a celebration of International Women’s Day in Kayonza District in March 2022. We hope this can be a regular fixture in our calendar.
The last three months have been almost normal with our RDOs working full time in schools delivering coaching sessions. Our final newsletter for 2021 is full of photos and information about what the team has been up to.
Two of our trustees, Mary and Glyn Watkins travelled to Rwanda for a 17 day trip around the country visit our RDOs who were finally allowed back into schools to coach.
Find out how they got on in our Special Edition Newsletter.
As the schools reopened on October 11th for the new academic year the RDOs all started to visit schools and to arrange trainings. It has been a busy couple of weeks.
We are delighted we had enough news to fill a newsletter. Hope you enjoy reading our news!
Although schools reopened in Rwanda in 2021, team sports were not allowed so it has not been possible for our RDOs to coach in schools.
In May there was some relaxation of the rules for those schools with facilities within the school grounds.
Both the RDOs and the children were delighted to be able to take part in some organised physical activity even though the passing of the ball was not allowed in some schools!
In these difficult times we are delighted to announce that we have received sponsorship for an RDO from a welsh charity, Heb Ffin. Many thanks to them.
In November 2020 schools in Rwanda opened up for the first time since March when they had all been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Our RDOs are still unable to run coaching sessions as the schools are currently not open to outside agencies and organised sporting events but we are hopeful that we will be able to restart our coaching programme soon.
All secondary schools have opened and primary schools are opening in a phased way. Currently only the upper primary classes are open (P5 and P6) and the plan is that in January the younger children will also start back to school.
It has been a tough few months and we were happy that as a result of our separate fundraiser “Bringing back the smiles” we raised over £1500 which helped over 120 families in 12 districts across Rwanda. It was also good for our RDOs to be doing something productive in their communities and helping their rugby families.
The RDOs have also been busy working remotely as a team to produce a handbook written by RDOs for RDOs. We are confident this will be a very useful resource for sharing good practice and especially for the new RDOs we are hoping to employ in 2021.
It has been difficult to produce a newsletter in the past few months but Issue 6 is a compilation for the past 8 months.
Donatien, RDO for Rusizi district, distributes food to some of the vulnerable families thanks to the money raised by the ‘Bringing Back the Smiles’ fundraiser
In mid March Rwanda reported its first case of Covid19 and the country went into immediate lockdown. All schools were closed and people were told to stay home.
Our RDOs have been unable to coach either at schools or with their community groups and clubs.
As many Rwandans live on a daily wage – the money they make doing a small job today is spent on food tomorrow – the lockdown has caused serious problems with people facing hunger.
We are raising money that our RDOs are using to buy food for the most vulnerable children and their families within the rugby community. Within the first few days we raised £800 which was sent straight out to Kamanda our programme manager who did a great job of coordinating the aid. Each RDO selected 5 families that were in most need. As well as our RDOs we also allocated some funding for two groups of street kids (in Kigali and Huye) and also three voluntary RDOs who teach rugby in other parts of Rwanda.
Laurien, RDO in Muhanga district distributes sacks of maize flour and beans
The £800 we have sent has supported 74 families plus the street kids groups. The RDOs bought the food and distributed to the children and their parents. They were careful to select food that was cheap and long lasting. Maize flour and dried beans are cheap, filling and non perishable. 1 kg of maize flour ( 50p) will make enough ugali for three people.
Thank you so much to all those who donated. We are continuing to raise money and hope to send another donation next week. Our RDOs have been so happy to be involved in helping their communities and it is a great way of sharing the ethos and community spirit of rugby.
Joseph, RDO for Ruhango district, hands over a large sack of maize flourJean de Dieu IBARINDE hands over beans and maize flour to selected families in the rugby community in Nyamagabe DistrictFrederic, RDO from Nyamasheke district with one of his young rugby playersMartin, vet by profession, gives his time freely to coach rugby in Kayonza district and has also helped with the Bringing back the smiles project to help 5 vulnerable families.Programme manager and Rugby Federation president, Kamanda, hands over maize flour to Alpha Junior rugby club in Kagugu, KigaliEvariste, a voluntary rugby coach with families in Rwamagana districtAssinapold, RDO for Burera District, with children from the five selected familiesStreet kids in Huye receive their food from Jean Claude. Jean de Dieu HAKIZIMANA RDO, for Gasabo District, with families from his rugby community
