Rwandan Women's Network--Village of Hope

Some of you might not know, but at the start of term 2 I got a housemate. She is American, and is working for the Peace Corps. Part of her job at my school is so start and run an outreach/community service club for the students(e.g. key club in highschool).
She had gotten a suggestion from our headmistress to work with the Rwandan Women's Network. This sounded like a good idea, so she decided to go for it. Since she had never been there or knew anyting about it, I offered to go with her, since I too had never gone, but two people are always better than one, right?HAHA..
I don't know all the facts, but if you are interested, I would say google the group. But I will give you what background I do know. It is an organization that started in 1996 for women and their children who survived the genocide. The do a variety of programs. From teaching basic heatlh, their human rights, to entreprenuership skills, the organization trys to give these women not only an education, but a way to make a life for themselves. They also have a place called the village of hope, which is a set of homes where the women can live. They are all over Rwanda,but one of their sites is about a 40 minute walk from my school.
This past Saturday was Umuganda.(for those of you who do not remember, this is the monthly community service that the entire country MUST participate in). My roomie worked out that we would take 30 students over and they would work in the compound. Since I was interested and since it was the first time they were going I offered to my roomie to go with her. She of course accepted. So Saturday morning at 7 am we met with the 30 students and headed out. We brought slashers(curved machetes used to cut grass), hoes, and brooms. Once we made it over there we met with a bunch of the women and we divided the girls up into working groups. It was really neat to see the students working alongside the women. I too did work.. I didn't just sit around and watch... don't worry, my momma taught my better.
I worked with the hoeing group. All my students were soooo surprised that I knew how to use a hoe and that I was giving them lessons. They were like "teacher, did you grow up on a farm?" I laughed and said of course not, but I am an adult so of course I know how to do work..haha.. sometimes the girls just make me laugh soo much; I just want to know what do they think my life was like.
I also showed some of the girls how to properly sweep. One needs to put some force into it. Especially with the dusty floors here. I did not try cutting the grass, but at some point I do, its just that the slasher actually looks hard to use. After the work was done the women brought out drums, and they and the students started singing and dancing around. It was really neat.
Before we knew it it was time to go.
At the moment my roomie is working on a proposal for what other projects we can do on a weekly basis. I'm not sure how involved I can get, just because I am very busy with teaching, but this is definitely something that when I have time, I want to go to also.