About: Be The Change Volunteers (BTCV) is a
development aid non-profit that builds, re-builds and refurbishes schools and
education centers around the world. We operate primarily in
developing-world countries serving remote communities with a demonstrated need
for educational facilities. Our organization is unique because we do not
just send funding to these communities, we go as a team of volunteers who
are willing to work as partners with the local community to provide sustainable
solutions. Volunteers are responsible for raising funds for their
expenses as well as a portion of the project costs. Our volunteers, who
we call Changers, invest in the project, but also invest in the people by
building lasting relationships with the community. For BTCV, this process
is "being the change we want to see in the world" because it empowers
the communities to take control of their futures through the power of
education. We call this process "hand delivered hope" and we
believe it is changing the world for the better – one school at a time. BTCV is unaffiliated, but partners with governments, churches, mission organizations and other NGOs to accomplish our work.
BTCV was formed in July 2007 during a school rebuilding project in Rwanda when volunteers from around the world traveled to Butare to restore a primary school that had been all-but-destroyed. The Ecole Primaire Catholic de Butare was devastated emotionally and physically by the genocide of 1994. All of the classrooms in each of the school buildings on the small campus had bullet holes in the walls, broken windows, damaged or missing doors, and leaking roofs. Teachers and students were without a functional setting for learning, not to mention a lack of desks, supplies and resources to provide an education for the beautiful young minds that will shape Rwanda’s future. Many of the children attending the school are orphaned as a result of the genocide and live on or near school grounds with classmates and faculty. This is now the only “family” they know. It was hard for the BTCV founding members to believe that this had been the state of education in Butare for over a decade. Amazingly the students spirits were strong and their thirst for learning was intense! The founders and their friends assembled a volunteer team to raise funds for a restoration project that would Be The Change this community needed. The volunteers spent two weeks working at the school. They learned much while interacting with students, faculty, community members and hired skilled workers from the area. Six classrooms were fully restored and completely outfitted with desks and supplies.
Lives were changed… theirs and ours.
BTCV was formed in July 2007 during a school rebuilding project in Rwanda when volunteers from around the world traveled to Butare to restore a primary school that had been all-but-destroyed. The Ecole Primaire Catholic de Butare was devastated emotionally and physically by the genocide of 1994. All of the classrooms in each of the school buildings on the small campus had bullet holes in the walls, broken windows, damaged or missing doors, and leaking roofs. Teachers and students were without a functional setting for learning, not to mention a lack of desks, supplies and resources to provide an education for the beautiful young minds that will shape Rwanda’s future. Many of the children attending the school are orphaned as a result of the genocide and live on or near school grounds with classmates and faculty. This is now the only “family” they know. It was hard for the BTCV founding members to believe that this had been the state of education in Butare for over a decade. Amazingly the students spirits were strong and their thirst for learning was intense! The founders and their friends assembled a volunteer team to raise funds for a restoration project that would Be The Change this community needed. The volunteers spent two weeks working at the school. They learned much while interacting with students, faculty, community members and hired skilled workers from the area. Six classrooms were fully restored and completely outfitted with desks and supplies.
Lives were changed… theirs and ours.
The Rwanda Project ignited a passion in four people who would become BTCV's founding members - Brian Anderson, Dominique Anderson, Cristi Cook and Jimi Cook (pictured here). Building schools became a mission for them and the official inaugural BTCV project was completed in October 2008 on Tonle Sap Lake in Siem Reap, Cambodia. BTCV built The Floating Learning Center - a school on a boat - which serves a floating community of 160 families with no consistently accessible educational facilities prior to the BTCV project.
Be The Change Volunteers (BTCV) officially received its status as a charitable organization in 2008 exclusively for charitable and educational purposes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code.
Be The Change Volunteers (BTCV) officially received its status as a charitable organization in 2008 exclusively for charitable and educational purposes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code.
