Students in Action

February 28, 2007 | Pulitzer Center

Kylie Butler, 16, of Topsham, Vt., and Lizzy King, 17, of Corinth, Vt., talk with workers at a garage in Kigali. The garage provides three-month internships in auto mechanics for young people in Project Independence.

Lizzy King, 17, of Corinth, Vt., guides Charles Mugisha, 8 or 9, an orphan who lives with Paulin Irankunda, a 22-year-old Project Independence graduate, in the Remera district of Kigali. Charles is fascinated by Lizzy’s camera and takes dozens of pictures.

Kylie Butler, 16, of Topsham, Vt. talks with workers at a garage in Kigali. The garage provides three-month internships in auto mechanics for young people in Project Independence.

From left: Kylie Butler, 16, of Topsham, Vt., Rebecca Young-Ward, 16 of Strafford, Vt., and Lizzy King, 17, of Corinth, Vt., listen to 18-year-old Eraste Byiringiro, whose father died of AIDS and whose mother is ill, at a garage where he was in the second week of an auto mechanics internship.

Rebecca Young-Ward, 16, of Strafford, Vt., and Ellen Young (Rebecca's mother) listen along with Project Independence students in a class on food preparation. The Rwandan students were taking part in an internship at a hotel restaurant in the Remera district of Kigali.

A young man working at a garage in Kigali, where students in Project Independence were beginning internships in auto repair.

A neighborhood child stands outside the home of Paulin Irankunda, 22, in the Remera district of Kigali.

Charles Mugisha, 8 or 9, takes a pictures using Lizzy King’s digital camera outside the home where he lives with Paulin Irankunda, 22, who years ago met him in an orphanage where both were staying. Looking on (from left) are Kylie Butler, 16, of Topsham, Vt., Rebecca Young-Ward, 16, of Strafford, Vt., and Lizzy King, 17, of Corinth, Vt.

Paulin Irankunda, 22, meets with the American teenagers at his home in Remera, a district of Kigali. Irankunda, whose mother died of AIDS and whose father was killed by the militia that carried out much of the 1994 genocide, recently graduated from Project Independence and now works as a server at a hotel restaurant in Kigali.

Project Independence students interning at a hotel restaurant in Kigali learn about nutrition in a class on food preparation.

Project Independence students listen to their teacher during a food preparation class at a hotel restaurant in Kigali.

From Left: Lizzy King, 17, of Corinth, Vt., Kylie Butler, 16, of Topsham, Vt., Ellen Young and her daughter, Rebecca Young-Ward, 16, both of Strafford, Vt., listen as Paulin Irankunda, 22, describes the years he spent as a refugee in the Democratic Republic of Congo after going there to try to find his father, who had been killed by the militia that carried out much of the 1994 genocide.

Three Vermont high school students spent part of their 11-day trip to Rwanda visiting students in Project Independence, which provides job skills training for Rwandan young people orphaned by AIDS. On one day, the Vermont students' first stop was a garage in the capital of Kigali where Rwandan students were working on vehicles as part of a three-month internship in auto repair. Then the group watched students studying hospitality learn about food preparation in a class at a hotel restaurant. That afternoon they visited the home of Paulin Irankunda, 22, who had just graduated from Project Independence and had gotten a job as a server at the restaurant where he'd been an apprentice.

The three Vermont students on the trip have been leaders in Operation Days Work, a program involving 18 schools across the country. Students at each school do odd jobs on a designated day each year to raise money for a project of their choosing that benefits young people in another country. Last year they decided to give the money to CHABHA (Children Affected By HIV/AIDS), a Vermont-based group that supports several programs in Rwanda, including Project Independence. The Vermont students traveled to Kigali to document the progress of Project Independence and make connections with the Rwandan young people in the program.