If you can learn how to read, you can read to learn

Every year, 10 Hempel employees from all over the world travel to Africa together on the Hempel Foundation’s iWitness Tour to see first-hand the projects supported by the Foundation. 

This year, the iWitness participants travelled to Rwanda to get an understanding of the huge positive difference the Hempel Foundation’s projects make to biodiversity and to children and their families there.

Rwanda is among the world's least developed countries. While the country has seen progress in school enrolment, the situation remains critical in primary schools: at least three out of 10 children do not complete primary school. Children are left to a life with few opportunities for providing for themselves, and even less to contribute to a prosperous and healthy society.
The Hempel Foundation is working with specialised organisations in Rwanda to design and deliver projects that enable children at risk to learn and thrive at school. Projects are implemented within the context of the Hempel Foundation's ambition to reach one million children by 2030.

iWitness participants this year got to visit two primary schools in Kayonza District as part of the Hempel Foundation's partnership with SOS Children's Villages. The programme aims to reach 32,000 children across the country by providing vulnerable children with much needed catch-up class support as well as psycho-social support.
During the trip, participants not only met with children and teachers at the two schools. They also visited two local communities where they had the opportunity to speak with some of the parents of the children in catch-up classes.

Participants have returned home as Hempel Foundation Ambassadors with lifelong memories, and over the coming weeks and months, they will be sharing their experiences with colleagues across Hempel and on LinkedIn under #iwitnesstour2023.