Supporter Spotlight: Brenda

In March, we shared the story of Brenda Custodio and Kathy Jimenez, two of our Global Perspectives participants who organized a one-day training for Rwandan educators in January 2020. In July, we met with Brenda virtually to learn more about her long-term engagement in Rwanda and how is the country dealing with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Brenda first discovered US Together through her career in ESL (English as a Second Language), teaching and working in the ESL Department of the Columbus City Schools and the Columbus Global Academy. Brenda got involved with ESL classes through her husband, who had moved to the United States from El Salvador and was taking ESL classes. She started by volunteering as an ESL teacher before starting an ESL job and earning both her masters and PhD in ESL.

Through her work in this career field, she met Nadia Kasvin, US Together’s Co-Founder and Director, and Angie Plummer, Executive Director of Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS). After retiring, Brenda wanted to stay involved with their refugee and integration programs and started volunteering. Then, in 2018 she heard about the opportunity to travel to Rwanda with US Together. She thought the Rwanda trip sounded interesting as she had wanted to revisit Africa after previously traveling there one other time, and especially wanted the chance to see a refugee camp after working with refugees for a majority of her career.

Brenda and Simeon in Rwanda (photo courtesy of Brenda Custodio)

In early 2019, Brenda visited Rwanda through one of US Together’s Global Perspective trips. While there, she met Simeon Bimenyimana, an English teacher from Boneza Sector, Rutsiro District, Western Province of the Republic of Rwanda.

While in Rwanda, Brenda noticed many differences between the public and private schools there. The private school she visited is funded by an American church and is able to provide its students with many amenities, such as internet and a computer lab. The public school, however, had electricity but was unable to provide its students or staff with either running water or internet. In addition, many teachers had to buy internet packages for themselves in order to use or download various teaching programs. Brenda decided that she wanted to help the public school teachers.

When she came back to the U.S. in January 2019, Brenda stayed in contact with Simeon and brainstormed ideas how she could help the teachers remotely. During the fall of 2019, Brenda assisted Simeon with his visit to Columbus, where he spoke at Ohio TESOL Conference and at US Together’s Refugee Integration Conference. Later in 2019, Brenda returned to Rwanda with US Together and led a highly successful training for Rwandan teachers on best practices for teaching English. More recently, Brenda has been working with Simeon to help him continue to teach ESL programs to teachers all over Rwanda, although this process was briefly stalled due to COVID-19. Rwanda has responded well to the pandemic, and while schools shut down in March, they have been successfully enforcing social distancing rules and plan to open in the fall. In April 2020, when the pandemic was the worst in Rwanda, Brenda and her daughter donated money to Simeon’s local community, much of whom did labor intensive jobs and were temporarily unemployed. This summer, Brenda also fundraised over $700 with her church to help Simeon start and operate a community chicken coop, which will be operated and owned by and for the Rwandan people.

Brenda says that in her experience, the only thing most Americans know about Rwanda is the Rwandan genocide and the mountain gorillas that live there. She finds this disappointing, because Rwanda has so much more to offer. Watch the video below to hear more from Brenda and her impressions from this East-African country.