Mission

Through healing, education, and love, the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village empowers orphaned and vulnerable Rwandan youth to build lives of dignity and contribute to a better world.

What We Do

ASYV uses four programs to heal its students and equip them with the skills and resilience they need to flourish, including Formal Education, Life Enrichment Applied Programs (LEAP), Parental Wholeness, and Health and Wellness. Formal Education delivers a comprehensive secondary school experience with a unique emphasis on critical thinking; LEAP encourages personal growth through extracurricular activities; Parental Wholeness creates and maintains a supportive family dynamic, with each student placed in an inclusive and attentive student family; and Health and Wellness safeguards students' physical and mental health through life skills education and treatment for conditions ranging from HIV and malaria to depression and anxiety. Founded in 2007 as a response to the persistent orphan crisis which arose in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, ASYV has provided more than 1,400 youth with a newfound hope for the future, including over 900 graduates now striving to make a positive difference in Rwanda and abroad.

Modeled after Yemin Orde, a youth village built in 1953 to care for orphans of the Holocaust, ASYV was established with the belief that all children deserve a loving family and a safe home. Today, ASYV can serve as a model of how to heal a traumatized society through caring for its children.