Jasper-based education org celebrating 20 years of working in Africa

As October snows threaten, some locals are packing their suitcases with visions of warmer climates dancing through their heads.

A Hawaiian getaway perhaps? Sojourn to Mexico? Costa Rica vacay?

Not for Jasperite Jill Fenton. Although Fenton is among those planning to ship off for the winter, she’s not making a bee-line for the beach. Instead, once again, Fenton is heading back to the mountains of Rwanda where she will continue her two-decades long undertaking to improve the East African country’s education system. 

“It’s always hard to leave Jasper,” the 75-year-old said two days before boarding a bus to Calgary, where she’ll fly, via Amsterdam, to Kigali, Rwanda’s largest city. “But it’s exciting to get there. We’ve got work to do.”

That work began 20 years ago, when Jill and her husband, Neil, who had just retired as the principals of Jasper Elementary School and Jasper Jr./Sr. High School, respectively, were searching for an opportunity to volunteer in Africa. 

“We took a leap of faith and we went,” she said.

Their leap of faith took them to the Green Hills Academy, a small, private, primary school that, under their tenure, went from a 200-pupil lower elementary school to a 1,500-student K-12 facility that is now the pride of the country.

But not all children from Kigali can afford tuition fees at a private academy, and after 10 years with Jill as headmistress, in 2009, the Fentons knew they wanted to make an impact for a much larger socio-economic demographic of students. To that end they established Tools for Schools, a registered charity specializing in teacher training and community building. The organization, now itself a decade in the making, utilizes local teachers, local labour and local community members to improve educational opportunities to Rwandan students.

And the students, Fenton says, are eager to succeed. 

“People want education because they see that’s the way to their future,” Fenton said.

Most of Rwanda’s 12.3 million people live in the countryside, making a living though subsistence farming. Classrooms are typically poorly equipped and overcrowded, with student-teacher ratios often exceeding 60-1. And materials are scarce; when the Fentons started their organization, Jill said there wasn’t enough source materials for teachers, let alone learning resources for students.

“Teachers were functioning with Xeroxed pamphlets,” she recalled.

Thanks to Tools For Schools, the situation has become significantly less dire for educators in the Kilgali region. As Rwanda makes great strides in its development, Tools For Schools is making great leaps in education. To date, along with building 11 nursery school classrooms, nine library facilities and installing more than 600 solar lights in areas with little to no electricity, Tools For Schools has invested in 21 teacher workshops, training more than 1,470 educators across the country.

“You’re leaving them not just a facility but the skills the teachers have learned, skills they can take with them to their school and their communities,” Fenton said.

To help build that legacy, the Fentons have relied, in many ways, on their own community. Through the Rotary Club of Jasper and local, private donations, Tools For Schools has raised thousands of dollars towards improving education in Rwanda. Alberta’s Community Initiatives Program has also played a role in augmenting a budget that stretches every dollar. 

“We’re very hands on,” Fenton says. “That’s how you make sure things are done.”

Tools For Schools has become a family affair. Jill and Neil’s children—former JNP superintendent Greg and his wife, Libby Weir, are currently stationed in Rwanda working with the Rotary Club’s International Committee. Daughter Tobi handles the organization’s banking and attends to other administrative affairs; son Neil Jr. maintains the website; and Saskatoon-based Tracey, along with her husband Marlow, helps with transportation and supplies. Neil Sr., in recent years, has been stricken with cognitive decline and as a result has taken a step back from the work.

“It’s hard to go on without Neil,” Jill admits. 

But the work must go on. The 10-hour days, the innumerable challenges of working in a developing country, the knowledge that for every person Tools For School helps, there are two more in need…it’s all time well spent, Fenton insists.

“When it’s your passion, it’s not work,” she says.

Beaches be darned.

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com