Kivu Hills Academy
Kivu Hills Academy
(KHA) is the first and only high school in Boneza. The humble school opened in January 2016 with just 21 students. Today, student numbers continue to climb, educating hundreds with our hands-on curriculum.
Located on a beautiful hill overlooking Lake Kivu, the school is being constructed in phases, growing as classrooms are filled.
KHA
The Curriculum
includes specialty trades in construction and masonry, agriculture, computer science, tourism, and student-led businesses including a bakery and soap making.
Construction
Computer Science
Tourism
Agriculture
Student Businesses
Sustainability
Hope for the future
Currently, the KHA campus is 80% operationally self-sustainable with plans to reach 100% in the coming years. The curriculum design engages students in learning and applying their skills while in school, using the proceeds to make KHA self-sufficient. KHA will eventually be extended to the land along the lake, just below the current hilltop campus. This dream for the future will bring hope to the villagers and students. We praise God who has provided the resources for this exciting plan and we’re tremendously grateful to our loyal donors who have helped this project unfold.
Kivu Hills Academy
The Campus
KHA is an impressive campus comprised of an admin block (staff offices, a computer lab and library), ten classrooms, a kitchen and dining hall, two dormitories for students, the Valmark Arena, the ARM Mission House for visitors, agricultural farms, a Cultural Center, and a student-run bakery. The campus will also be a multi-generational educational facility providing vocational skill training for all ages.
Computer Lab
Library
Classroom Blocks
Classroom
Student in Class
Dining Hall
Lunch Time
Kitchen
Dormitory
Valmark Arena
KHA Lions Basketball
Mission House
Mission House
Agricultural Farms
KHA Cows
Cultural Center
Bakery
Leadership at KHA
Jean Claude Dusabe
is the Principal of Kivu Hills Academy, a school he has been serving since 2016 as a Construction Trainer and Head of Masonry Department. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and Management from the Burkina Faso Higher Institute of Technologies and an Advanced Diploma in Civil Engineering with specialization in Construction Technology from Rwanda polytechnic, by then the Kicukiro College of Technology in Kigali.
More about Jean Claude
Right after graduating from college, Jean Claude started working with different technical and vocational training institutions in Rwanda where he served as a TVET trainer most especially in construction and masonry. Additionally, he has helped to start schools to build training systems that excelled in quality of technical education.
Jean Claude joined Kivu Hills Academy in 2016 as construction instructor and played a key role in training the school’s pioneers who broke a record and passed a hundred per cent for the first time in the history of technical schools in the District.
Besides his job as trainer, Jean Claude took part in various construction projects where he served as a site engineer. He also attended several professional development courses to sharpen his skills in both Engineering and Technical and Vocational training. At Kivu Hills Academy, he dedicates most his time helping the students to grow academically and spiritually, something he believes will contribute to achieving of Rwanda’s vision.
Currently, Jean Claude is the Principal of Kivu Hills Academy and continues to enjoy other responsibilities which include overseeing the teaching and learning processes, ensuring good welfare of the students and staff, maintaining a good collaboration with the school’s stakeholders donors and partners with Arise Rwanda Ministries and working with the KHA team to maintain the excellence of the quality of the training offered by the school.
Jean Claude speaks three languages fluently, Kinyarwanda, English and French.
“KHA has changed my discipline. The KHA staff members care about not only academic skills but also personal skills, student accommodation, feeding, and physical needs. This school has taught me how to construct houses, how to start a profitable business, interpersonal, spiritual, communication, social and leadership skills that will help me to achieve my life goals. Both the knowledge and skills I’ve learned as a construction student help me to assist local leaders when they want to construct houses for the poor or widows in the community. I am also now a member of the worship team here and at my church. My biggest goal is to serve poor people, to change my family’s living standards and provide them all the basics, and pay school fees for my brothers and sisters.”
“I’m so thankful to have an education, three meals a day and a roof over my head. The teachers here challenge us to think out of the box and be creative. They instill into us Christian values so we will graduate to be Christ-like leaders. When I graduate, I would like to help others as I have been helped.”
“I would like to thank Arise Rwanda for giving me this opportunity to go back to school. Education is the only way to break the cycle of poverty. Thank you for investing in the children of Rwanda. Now I have hope.”
“Thank you so much for giving my family and me the privilege to go to school. You gave us hope after I had lost it. Thank you for loving me without knowing me.”
“Now I have hope. At Kivu Hills Academy, we have three meals a day, which we don’t get at my house. We have wonderful teachers that believe in us. The sky is the limit for me. My heart breaks when I return to my village and see many of my friends are not going to school because their families can’t afford it.”
“I am living my dream at Kivu Hills Academy. I am studying computer systems and I have a dream to be the first computer engineer in Boneza. Thank you for giving me an opportunity in life by sending me to school. Please consider giving a scholarship to another eager student.”
The Scholarship Fund
Tuition Assistance
Invest in Education, change a life.
The KHA Scholarship Tuition Assistance Fund provides for the students in need of financial support. For this school year a scholarship of $600 per student helps cover costs such as three meals a day, dorm accommodations, our hands-on curriculum, school supplies, and extracurricular activities.
Our goal in the 2023/2024 school year is to provide 300 scholarships for the KHA Scholarship Tuition Assistance Fund.
Looking Back
KHA PROGRESS
This video briefly showcases the transformation of KHA. The KHA land was purchased in 2014 and construction began shortly after. Amazing progress continues to transform this campus.
