Margaret Butler is not one to sit still when people around her can use a leg up. The 32-year-old Butler, who moved to Bowen when she was two and is now based in Boston, founded an organization that provides educational opportunities to young women in Rwanda.
This week Bowen can help her in helping them.
How? Simply by running. The annual Run for the Ferry has taken an organizational hiatus this Bowfest and this year there's a Run for Rwanda, more specifically a run for The Komera Project.
Komera means "be strong, have courage" in Rwandan. The project began in 2007 when, after completing her master's degree in international education and development in New York, Butler worked in Rwanda for the Clinton Foundation.
An avid runner who has spent countless hours joyfully running the trails of Bowen (and competing for West Van Secondary School, she continued running daily through villages and over the beautiful terrain of the 'land of a thousand hills,' as Rwanda is known. As she ran, she thought about the lack of educational opportunities for girls and women there.
"I found that there were many boys running with me but rarely girls. One early morning run a brazen girl started to run with me. She was amazing," Butler told the Undercurrent this week. "This little sequence gave me the start of an idea. I knew I wanted to start a scholarship fund for girls in secondary school so they felt like there was hope [to continue learning past primary school]."
"I also knew that I wanted to do something with the community to celebrate girls and educate everyone on the importance of girls/women and girls education. I worked with the local government and schools and 10 girls were selected to be the first set of Komera scholars. They were selected because they were the most impoverished yet at the same time showed a zeal to continue on with their education."
That program now gives 35 girls a secondary education, providing them with "full tuition, health care, pens and books, uniforms, luggage, mattresses and sheets and feminine hygiene pads" and works at growing the number (details at www.komeraproject.org).
After her work with the Clinton Foundation finished, by great happenstance she got a job in Boston as executive director of IEE, a non-profit organization that supports teacher-trainers in Rwanda. She travels there often, allowing her to keep a hands-on approach with Komera.
Butler says Rwanda is working hard to move past the genocide that took place 17 years ago. "Where they are today is a testament to their drive, their ability to forgive and the incredible hope for the future," she says. "The scars are still there and they will be there for a very long time but they are determined to move forward and build a country that leads Africa towards prosperity."
To illustrate their great sense of community she notes that "on the last Saturday of every month the entire country takes part in local community service projects: building schools, repairing roads, cleaning up public gardens etc." A practice that Bowen, and Canada, could learn from.
The Run for Rwanda here came about when her parents, Robin and Hilary, heard about the lack of a run this year and stepped in to work with Bowfest to fill the void. Margaret, here recently for a visit but now back working in Boston, can't make the run but is grateful to her parents and a community she loves.
"Bowen is such a special place," Butler said. "I am also completely overwhelmed and appreciative of the amazing support that the people of Bowen have shown to Komera. I am so proud to be part of a community that has such a big and open heart to a group of girls who live so far away."
Run for Rwanda entry forms are available at First Credit Union, the Gym, Phoenix, Positively Fit, the Snug Café and the rec office. There's a 1.5 km run for kids, a 5km and a 10km event.
