Mary's Dream

Many of you know, in 2008 I lost my best friend Mary at the ripe age of 23. One of her biggest dreams before she passed away was to help build a school in her mother's hometown of Rwanda. Mary passed away before she could make that dream come true. In 2013 Mary's parents and family began working on a project to build a classroom in Rwanda for the poor children there, who were without parents and had no access to basic education. They built and saw completion of one classroom (see photos) and are hoping to continue building another.

Today, to celebrate Mary's life, and her lifelong dream, we are raising money to keep her dream alive. Below you will find the story that inspired Mary's dream.


From Agathe Whitehead:

I am from Rwanda,
In 1994 just before the genocide started, we were in Central Africa Republic, Bangui. That year my husband Bob was finishing his tour there, so we decided to take the kids to visit my family for the first time.

On April 7, 1994 the war started, so we came to the states immediately. My entire family was killed during the genocide. I do not have any left in my home town, but I do have friends there that I met after the war.


In 2003 when Mary came for vacation from Culver, we took both kids to Rwanda; we visited the village, and met with the remaining orphans left parentless from the genocide. Mary told me that her and I should start putting $10 in a piggy bank to bulid a school and she was going to name it St. Mary and I was going to build a church and name St. Agatha.

After she died in 2008, our dream hadn't come to fruition just yet. In 2010 Bob and I went to Rwanda to see if we could help one of the orphanage children. We found one in Pama. We began bringing Mary's dream to life by buying the first classroom in 2013. The pictures posted were taken while I was in Kigali with the Whitehead family who came to see the project in 2013. We supplied all of the simple neccessities such as books, chairs and supplies for the children.






Our goal is to expand by purchasing another classroom.

I am going to Rwanda in August to visit the school, build the classroom and also to put Mary's picture on it. 


The school is not yet finished and it needs a lots of material. It will probably need $3,000.00 Rwanda is a very expensive city. The cement is the most expensive material that we need in order to build. 

Thanks for listening to my story. I hope with this fundraiser, we can help Mary to achieve her dreams of helping the children from my hometown have the opportunity for a basic education.  What is common law in the states, such as learning to read and write, is a luxury in which many children in my country are not fortunate.

Any help is much appreciated and a step further into accomplishing Mary's mission.




Sincerely, 

The Whitehead family & Friends