1. Hope Haven Case Study
By: Lucas Jones
History of Rwanda
As a country, Rwanda had split between two different ethnic groups called the
Hutus and the Tutsis. In the past there were few differences between the two groups other
than physical appearance. Though through this minor difference, the Belgian presence in
the country propagated an ethnic divide by handing out identity cards based on nose
length and eye measurements. The division brewed hostility between the two ethnic
groups that resulted in simultaneous blame and resentment. Because of their power, the
Tutsis oppressed the Hutu community for some time by influencing political and
economic decisions that exploited their power over the Hutus. The Hutu community
recognized their oppression and blamed the Tutsis for the economic and political issues
that Rwanda was facing at the time. Because of this ethnic split, tension rose between the
two groups with little involvement from outside countries. On April 6, 1994 a boiling
point was reached when the Hutu President, Habyarimana, was shot down from the sky.
The Hutu extremists immediately began an attempt to wipe out the Tutsi population.
Fights began between the Rwandan military and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (a group of
Tutsi officers), which resulted in the deaths of 800,000-1,000,000 people over a span of
100 days. During this time, the government was run by an extremist group of Hutu Power
leaders who exercised complete control over the people of Rwanda. Powerful countries
like Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the United States sat idly by while one of the
biggest genocides of the twentieth century took place. The Tutsi women were brutally

2. raped and families feared for their lives as the Hutus ruthlessly destroyed an entire race of
people. Schools and hospitals became piles of rubble as the future of the city of Kigali
grew dimmer every day. In 1994 about 100,000 children were separated from their
families. They became orphans in a country with no promise of security or reformed
structure.
After the genocide, the country had little hope of a prosperous future and faced
possible decades of societal reparations due to racial differences, an economic downturn,
and changes in political power. The country began the road to restoration with the
installation of President Paul Kagame. Kagame acknowledged the internal state of decay
within Rwanda and therefore chose people with an education outside the country to serve
in government positions. The new government pushed for no corruption by holding trials
to address those responsible for the genocide. Through these changes, his political regime
called for reconciliation and responsibility. In the year 2000 Kagame started a plan called
the 2020 vision, which consisted of 6 pillars. These pillars represent a list of goals that
the country was to focus on over the next 20 years that included: good governance,
agricultural transformation, advancement in science and technology, gender equality,
environmental and natural recourse management, and the development of a private
sector. This vision is the framework in which the government wishes to see the country
operate and can be achieved only through proper education.
Education is the gateway to monetary success and the prevention of a history that
repeats itself. Today schools are the most important tool to empower the next generation
with the ability to reduce the poverty rate, stimulate the economy, and understand the
mistakes that were made in the past in order to prevent a genocide from ever destroying

3. the country of Rwanda again. Among the many things that the country has put in place to
reconstruct a sufficient economy, schools are being built rapidly to meet the needs of
children across the country. The government supports the construction of new
educational facilities and encourages the advancements of education for the citizens of
Rwanda. Above all they want their citizens to understand the steps that need to be taken
to help Rwanda become an economic leader among the surrounding countries. The
president Paul Kagame is persistent in his attempt to expand education not only by
increasing the quantity of schools, but also by improving the quality of education
provided to the people.
Hope Haven Rwanda
Hope Haven is a family/community-oriented ministry that recasts a vision to
empower families to thrive in their economy in order to become job providers
rather than job seekers. This academic facility sits on approximately 10 acres of land
on the side of a hill that rests in a village called Murindi. The focus of the ministry is
to provide education to children who would otherwise not have an opportunity to
go to college. Much aligned with the 2020 vision and 6 Pillars that President Kagame
represents, Hope Haven pushes for advancement in agriculture, entrepreneurship,
gender equality, and overall economic advancement. Though perhaps most
importantly, Hope Haven strives to empower the Rwandan people by giving them a
vision for the future that starts with the students, but ripples outward to impact
families in the surrounding community. This is accomplished by teaching the

4. students occupational skills such as agriculture, computer technology, and literacy
in English and Kinyarwanda languages. Though integrated with these occupational
teachings, the ministry’s platform introduces entrepreneurship in their daily lives.
The written vision of Hope Haven is “to change the world one family at a time.” This
vision is vital in changing the infrastructure of the typical home from surviving daily,
to thriving in their health and finances while securing a hopeful future. The school
currently provides education from a nursery level to the third grade. Though they
currently plan to expand to the sixth grade one level at a time. They also offer
vocational training for adults in the surrounding community to empower the heads
of families to make economically sound decisions for their children. The current goal
for the Hope Haven ministry is to not only have 100% of the students pass the
National Exam for secondary school, but to have them take the next step in their
education by attending secondary school as well. Providing education for Murindi is
the primary focus of Hope Haven; though due to its presence the ministry is able to
influence the people in the surrounding community in many other ways.
Infrastructure and Operations within the Community
Susan Hollern, founder of Hope Haven, has organized the ministry in the U.S. as a
501(c)(3) public charity. Though in Rwanda the school is organized as a business.
Susan Hollern says, “I have the right to bring in the money from my listed non-profit
in the states, but as far as in Rwanda, I have full control of the sustainability over
Hope Haven.” Because Kagame is pushing capitalism and economic growth,

5. registering for a 501(c)(3) in the city is difficult. Therefore Susan has found a way to
raise money for an important cause and operate the school in the form of a business
instead. The business model allows future sustainability projects to fund the school.
Rwanda is also against “hand-outs” in the form of fundraising, which suggests that
the business model is a better fit within the culture that the government is pushing
for the country. Along with donations, Hope Haven survives on fees for their
services that are affordable for this community. This helps empower the poor
because they are provided with the opportunity to earn their education. Handouts
for education do not help the community understand the purpose of earning and
creating jobs. While working within this model, Hope Haven has seen the
community take responsibility for their families’ well-being and will continue to
push an entrepreneurial drive amongst the community.
Nate Kempton was then hired as an onsite director to ensure that operations
and education are going as planned on a daily basis. Kempton lives on campus so
that all problems that arise can be handled hands on before being properly
communicated to Susan back in the United States. In the last three years Nate has
become extremely familiar with the city by making meaningful relationships with
the people of Kigali. Nate takes time to create personal relationships, bid the jobs
within construction scope, with multiple people at multiple times. This ensures
ethical transactions, especially in the construction process. Communication and
awareness within this community is important in making the right and lasting
decisions for the school. These relationships have been crucial in the success of

6. Hope Haven and continue to have a lasting impact on Nate and Susan’s ability to
continue with their vision for the school.
The School
Hope Haven currently operates today with a nursery and three primary
grades (3 year olds-3rd Grade). The goal is to keep expanding until the sixth primary
grade is reached and students are adequately prepared for secondary school. Hope
Haven follows the government school year schedule of three terms. For each term, a
student is required to pay 15,000 Franks (or $21.00) to attend classes. This offers a
new opportunity to the families of the students. Hope Haven allows the families who
struggle to afford payments to work in substitution. For example, moms and dads
can work in agricultural fields to help support their children through school. This
gives the families a unique opportunity to learn new trades and be more equipped
to develop a vision for future success. A full curriculum is being prepared for these
parents to partake in learning in depth permaculture practices. Simultaneously, the
parents are working to earn school fees and a take-home salary, which will improve
the quality of their daily lives. Hope Haven has also found that allowing the parents
to work together helps develop a community between families who would not
normally communicate with one another. When the parents are working on the
grounds of Hope Haven there is a feeling of ownership that comes with the work.
This has helped develop loyalty within the community that makes the school less
susceptible to theft and crime. In this way, Hope Haven is seeing an impact in the

7. community and that transcends their involvement with its students. So far the
community has been extremely receptive of all the opportunities that Hope Haven
has to offer and is working in unison with the school to see that its expansion
continues smoothly in the years to come.
Schools and churches in America are also beginning to back the vision by
sending out professional teachers to come alongside the educators of Hope Haven.
The outside American involvement helps to provide the educators with skills that
will help the advancement of the students and their families. Teachers onsite attend
one hour training sessions after school twice a week to advance their skills in the
classroom. With these skills, the teachers will also hold night classes for adults and
children to help teach families in the community about business and financial
stability. Adults learning vocational skills at Hope Haven will then be able to take
these skills and apply them in every day life to pursue monetary and vocational
success. This is how Hope Haven has successfully aligned their vision with that of
President Kagame’s 6 Pillars. Integration with the government is extremely
important in order to create a lasting impact on the communities of Rwanda. Hope
Haven has found a way to do this for the students and their families as a whole.
Instilling Hope Haven’s vision within the parents and families creates a unified
vision in the home that dramatically increases the chances of a child’s future
success. By doing these things, Hope Haven can truly see a marginal impact one
family at a time and drastically change the future economy of Rwanda in a positive
way.

8. Finances and Fundraising
Initially in 2011, The Hollern family felt that it was prudent to use family resources
to begin Hope Haven. There were three sole reasons for this decision to initially self-
fund. The first reason was the chance that the concept could potentially fail. It was
important to the Hollern family that the concept succeeded before they started to
use others’ money as a source of funding. The second reason was that the project of
Hope Haven could advance quicker without taking the time for initial fundraising.
Finally, the family felt that fundraising would be much easier when the project was
provable and showed large potential for growth. Looking back, Susan recognized
that this strategy helped provide Hope Haven with a head start that gave her the
confidence to begin fundraising for what would become a growing success.
In September of 2012 (9 months later), a fundraiser was held so that Susan
could share her vision for Hope Haven. Architects were present to talk about
structures and people were extremely receptive to what she had to say. At the end
of the event, $22,000 was raised for the institution that was educating 90 kids at the
time. Following the event, a volunteer named Abbey Pint began marketing for Hope
Haven and was later hired to continue her work filming on site in Rwanda. She put
together media that helped describe the vision and the impact that Hope Haven was
already having on the community from people visiting. In 2013, Abbey’s media
productions had sparked an awareness that brought in many donations that helped
further the construction of the school. With awareness rising, people began to seek
involvement in any way they could. Valor Christian High School began sending

9. teams of teachers and students over to Kigali to help with construction and
education. Having an American presence in the community of Murindi benefited the
teachers at the school who began to learn new ways of education. In 2014 Susan
began to approach fundraising with a new vigor by pushing her vision on people in
the states that understood the importance of education. Luncheon fundraisers and
phone calls were made to ask for financial help from people who had shown
interest. This resulted in the largest collection of donations than in any prior years.
This allowed for large structural advancements on the property that included an
increase in classrooms and dormitories that provided housing for consultants from
other countries to help train the current staff in new ways to approach education.
These dormitories also provide areas to train Rwandans from the government
schools around Rwanda. Hosting these teachers helps facilitate the on-site training
of the local teachers and impacts the quality of education across the entire country.
Challenges
In the last 4 years Susan has ran into many challenges. Fundraising has
proven to be difficult on her own. Expressing the importance of Hope Haven is most
impactful when others understand its vision in the United States. Susan said that
the most important aspect of fundraising is to “get people who love Hope Haven, to
talk about Hope Haven.” This is a good representation of why advertising her vision
was stressed to be so important. “People outside of myself need to encourage others
and get the word out. It is most important for people to spread the word and get

10. people excited about the vision.” Awareness is best raised when other people
understand and get excited about the vision and purpose that Hope Haven is
pursuing. She has seen success in the Denver area where she lives with her family,
though is eager to spread the vision to people outside the state of Colorado. To have
a full lasting impact on the community of Murindi and Rwanda as whole, people
from all over the United States need to get behind Hope Haven.
Another complication that Hope Haven has run into is hiring the right people
for the right jobs. The school’s development in 2015 is solely dependent on hiring
the right people on site. It is important that the employees are in sync with Hope
Haven’s vision. Susan wants on site employees that work well together and
communicate with her well. Communication is key in the success of Hope Haven.
Conflict is frequent during the infancy of expansion and can be handled poorly if
issues are not properly communicated. One recurring issue in Rwanda is how
efficiently people use their time. When hiring, an analysis of how a person utilizes
their time is key in ensuring future projects will be completed by their deadlines.
Many organizations and companies in the city run slowly, so having employees that
are persistent and timely is also necessary in the development stage.
Finally, the most important aspect of running Hope Haven is funding. Susan
said that making sure the right people are in charge of fundraising determines the
speed at which Hope Haven achieves its vision. It is difficult to have the right people
in positions to help people get excited about what an important difference the
school is having on a community that is underdeveloped. Fundraising is primarily
about getting people behind a vision financially. Once this is accomplished,

11. individuals can see the potential difference that their finances are making in the
world and will be more inclined to give. Displaying the impact that Hope Haven is
having through meetings and media is the lifeblood of raising money. Making sure
that the people who are in charge of these two things are aligned with the correct
vision and communicate frequently with Susan and her staff is proving to be a
challenge. When these factors are perfectly aligned, fundraising becomes less
stressful and more impactful.
Future Involvement
Susan plans on developing a governing board full of trusted and experienced
members that can help with the expansion and progression of Hope Haven. There is
also a plan to hire professional developers that help with fundraising and spreading
awareness. The opportunity at hand is large and promising. With the proper people
backing the ministry, it will continue on to be more impactful.
Hope Haven wants to develop further until it provides the students with
education up until the sixth grade. This is the last grade before the students
continue their education at secondary school. It is very likely that the government
will push for Hope Haven to become a secondary school in future, but for the time
being there are different priorities that must be achieved before this is considered.
Expanding the school grounds is first on that list of priorities. Currently, Hope
Haven operates in 20,000 square feet with plans to expand to 50,000 square feet in
the next few years, so that it can take on three more primary grades and provide the

12. proper sized buildings for the amount of students that will be receiving their
education on the school grounds.
There is a great opportunity for Hope Haven to become one of the leading
schools in Rwanda in terms of educational quality and overall community impact.
The next couple years are about reaching grade six while continuing to advance the
quality of education. In this way, people will be provided the opportunity to live out
the vision that Hope Haven stands for. The impact that Hope Haven has already had
on Rwanda is powerful; though it is more powerful still to see the impact that the
school will continue to have on Rwanda in the future.