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Reported by Nigel Marsh, World Vision Rwanda Communications Officer		Visit the Kids for Kids website. Click here!
When 16-year-old student Jessica Novak said she was going to help poor children in Rwanda last year, she wasn't kidding! Within weeks she had raised enough money to buy kid goats for a dozen families of orphan children, and the money is still coming in.	|||	Jessica Novak

It was an eighth-grade history project at Jessica's school in Virginia, St. Anne's-Belfield, that gave her the idea that she could do something to help. And it was from family friend Deborah Hopper, programme officer with World Vision Rwanda, that she heard of thousands of families of children in Rwanda who have lived without adults since the 1994 war.

Jessica told her school friends about the plight of the children in Rwanda, and outlined her "Kids for Kids" plan: Kids in America would raise money to buy kid goats for the kids in Africa. Her friends went for it enthusiastically, making goat-shaped ornaments as incentives for those who contributed enough to buy an animal.

"Kids for Kids is trying to raise money to buy one goat for each child-headed family in Rwanda," says Jessica, who lives on a farm and knows the benefit of the goats. "They are hardy, they eat almost anything, they give birth twice a year, their milk is nutritious, and once the herd has reached a reasonable size the offspring can be sold or bartered for food."

World Vision has picked a pilot project in Gikongoro, western Rwanda, to benefit from Jessica's hard work. In Nyamugabe nearly 100 families of, on average, four children live alone, their parents killed in the 1994 genocide or in subsequent years in refugee camps. Although usually still in their former homes, they are unable to farm their small plots effectively, pay for school, medicine or clothes, and most have lost hope for the future.

World Vision responded by appealing to the local authority, which donated seven hectares of land. With USAID funding, WV provided seeds and tools, and helped train the children how to farm the land collectively. The World Food Programme provided food while the children began to cultivate.

Meanwhile, WV has begun training some of the older children in tailoring and other vocational skills. It provides school materials for the younger children to go back to school, and community workers visit the youngsters in their homes and advise them on everything from their legal right to keep their property to health and hygiene.

The members of the children's association in Rwanda are overjoyed to hear that someone their own age in the United States is thinking of them and working for them.

"We are very grateful to Jessica for helping us to have goats," says 19-year-old Frieda, who has been looking after four youngsters since she was 14. "Since the war there are very few goats, and the land lacks manure. This will help us in many ways. God bless her for thinking of us. We hope she may come here one day so we can show her the goats she is helping us to receive."

Deborah Hopper, in Rwanda, says Jessica's initiative shows international development is not just for governments and organizations. "World Vision has the staff and expertise to make this work on the ground, but Jessica's determination and personal involvement will make a big difference to these youngsters. They won't forget it."