I know you have an incredible story, can you introduce yourself?
My name is Orest Ndabaneze I was born October 6th 1998 to two loving parents: Capitoline Nikundana and Manasse Ndabaneze. My story starts before my parents got married in 1972. Life for them was not always as good as the first year they got married. My dad’s side of the family was very abusive. They decided to move outside of the country to pursue a better life in Rwanda, they got into the real estate business and they were pretty successful. They also raised 12 children from 1972 to 1993.
While Orest’s family was successful, they encountered many hardships, this is due to the Rwandan genocide that happened from 1993 to 1994. His family fled Rwanda and moved to Congo for a better life. They were forced to sell their property, their homes and everything that they owned. They lived in Congo for about two years before the Congolese government started kicking people out. This led the Ndabaneze family back to Burundi, where Orest was born.
During the span of 1993 to 1996, we lost 6 of my siblings. Before I was born, we lost my father. Rebel soldiers came into the house, we fled, my dad stayed for a bit and he was hiding and when he was about to escape, he was brutally murdered, so I was raised by my mom, Capitoline. She was a great woman and even through everything that she’s been through, she stayed strong. She built her own businesses in Burundi, she owned properties. As a [patriarchal] country like Burundi, women are always blamed for everything that happens, and in 2001 she was blamed for shooting down a helicopter.
Capitoline was imprisoned for 6 months, and one of her biggest wishes was to have her youngest son, Orest, come to prison with her. Her wish was granted. She was able to enjoy the company of her son during her imprisonment. Eventually Capitoline was released, and for her false imprisonment, she was granted a significant amount of money. But her struggles did not end there.
In 2003, rebellion soldiers came into our home looking for my mom, specifically, and she hid us in our spare bedroom and she told us to stay quiet. My older sister did not want her to go [with the soldiers] by herself so she went with her. Around 3 am on September 9th, my sister came back and said that they had released her. Then, in the morning, around 9 o’clock that’s when my uncle came to tell us that my mother was murdered.
Orest describes his mother as the provider, the heart and soul of the family. During this difficult time, he and his siblings were taken in by their uncle Cyprien, who felt an obligation to take care of his sister’s children. A couple days after the transition, they moved to Kenya. Declaring refugee status was a long process of having to convince the United Nations of a story they found difficult to believe. It took a year and a half to receive the status and to begin the process of moving to Canada.
On July 12th 2006, Orest and his remaining family settled in Edmonton, AB. He explains that the adjustment wasn’t difficult, because as a french speaker, he attended a francophone school. Three years later, he moved to Calgary to live closer to his newlywed sister. However, his adjustment to Calgary was not as easy as his adjustment to Edmonton.
Calgary is a very anglophone city, there’s not a lot of french areas. It was hard to adjust to the school system here. From the beginning of grade 6, junior high, to high school (and I was fortunate to be an athlete), I got a scholarship to come to Mount Royal University for soccer, played on the team for 3 and a half years, and then I decided to “hang the boots” like people say. And then that’s when I knew there was a bigger purpose in life. In March of 2019, I had a calling, I had a vision.
Orest had declared all of the homes that his mother left him. He wondered what to do with them. He decided to rent some of them out and one was left vacant.
...and the reason why is that I had a calling that I needed to start a school. An orphanage, a school or something.
Orest reached out to a confidant and real estate friend who encouraged him to “Do it!” He reached out to his brother who also told him to “Do it!” After receiving the support of his mentor Jill Stewart and her son, Jesse, the project took off.
In September 2019, they began working on their mission and vision. The team also expanded. CEO of Royal Lepage, Chris Pitman, who owns a coffee shop in Tanzania, Kilimanjaro, got involved in the project after showing enthusiastic interest. Then they got a team and started meeting every Wednesday for dinners.
In January of 2020, they decided that they wanted to launch a website and plan a huge event in June. Another fundraising option was to sell the CEO’s coffee. They launched their website March 2nd 2020, then the pandemic hit.
This event is not going to happen. We’re anticipating $40 per person, we’re gonna have 300 people, we were gonna have an African night and now that was cancelled. So, it was like okay, go on and sell coffees.
Orest’s team was quite successful in the first month and a half, selling over 150 bags of coffee. Leading up to the summer, sales increased and they worked on getting a younger team. However, the team took a month off after the George Floyd incident.
After the break, the team was filled with new graduates (most from Mount Royal University) and one in law school. In December 2020, they had their best selling month making over $1000 in coffee sales.
Around January 2020, I came up with the name Jua, which basically means ‘sun’ in Swahili. When I was back home and whenever kids see the sun outside they know that there’s a better hope for the future, and the future is possible, and that’s why we came up with the name Jua.
You’re building the school in Burundi right? Do you wanna talk about why there as opposed to here?
The reason I chose back home is because I have the property. And I just want to fulfill the prophecy of my mother, she was a huge advocate for women empowerment. And I saw the need of children back home. 65 percent, I believe, of Burundian children are homeless. And that was dear to my heart. And another staggering percentage: around 65 percent of the population, mostly children and women live below the poverty line, after grade 6, dropout of school to help out with their mothers back home. This trend has been going on since my mother’s day. Since the 60’s and 70’ because my mom also dropped out of school in grade 6. So I’m just trying to change the trend that has been going on for so long.
A statement I pulled from your website is “Jua is an educational pioneer in the region.” The reason that statement stood out to me is, as a pioneer, you’re talking about being the first, so is that a motivating factor for you?
Of course! So one of my biggest goals for this foundation is to, not only educate, but for those children after grade 12, come to Canada, go to Europe or go over to the States and actually learn outside of their country and to come back after 5 years and share the principles they have learned and make the economy, politically, religiously a better country - Burundi. And that’s why we, I had to get that word in ‘pioneer’ because we want to be the first to get these children outside of the country and if they end up staying in the states or in Canada or in Europe, they can help out their families back home.
What is your vision for the school, do you have any ideas for the curriculum, who’s gonna teach, what subjects, extracurriculars?
That’s actually a question that we’ve battled for over a year and a half. Some people say… nobody wants the Burundian system because alot of kids over there fail and it's just not right. So we’ve thought of the international curriculum which is based on the british system, we’ve thought about the Alberta curriculum but that’s a little bit hefty and would take alot so it’s between the International and the Canadian system, likely the international one because there’s actually a program where you pay, not a lot of money, teachers go to those countries and teach for a year. If we get the international curriculum, we can teach those teachers who are teaching over there how everything is run. We live in the era of digital so we’re gonna emphasize technology so that sometimes, some of the classes are going to be virtual. One of the people that I like in Canada or here in Calgary are going to be teaching them. So, just have them staying in contact with people over here, so they don't feel disconnected.
I wanna create something like ‘pass’ or ‘fail’, but I don’t want any of the children to fail so we’re gonna figure out a way to educate those children. There’s a school, Lebron James, basketball player, it’s called Lebron James foundation in Akron, Ohio. He was able to find the toughest kids who had the toughest backgrounds and of course he had challenges, but all 300 children passed in the first year of education. So we’re gonna try to create something like that.
What are some of the barriers to education/passing that you foresee, and what are some specific things you see yourself doing to overcome those challenges?
One of the emphasis is going to be on mental health. Because all these children have been facing trauma all their life, some of the kids have lost a parent. Most of those kids are hungry in the street. Figuring out that mental health aspect, I think, is going to be the most challenging, but I think it's doable, we just have to find a space where they feel comfortable, a space where they can play. We’re trying to provide… How we see it is, if you start something like this, you’re not only helping the kids, you’re helping their family, their mom and dad, their household. So we’re gonna try to find a ‘thing’ that supports and provides for the whole family. Once we do that, children are going to slowly get accustomed to what we’re doing. So I think the mental health aspect is going to be the barrier, but I think, if you’re trying help one person, one kid, especially one kid who’s 6 or 5 we have to start helping people who are around them, the public sphere, the mom, the dad, the siblings, the kids. So once we do that, I think the kids are gonna start opening up a little bit.
“Education without boundaries,” what does that statement mean to you?
For me growing up, I faced a lot of adversity, a lot of hardship, and that kind of affected my learning. In Kenya, I was always #1 or 2 because I wanted to get out. I knew school was the only way. Then I came to Canada and became a little bit lackadaisical, got accustomed to a system that was way less pressure and then I moved around, so I never really stuck to one particular school that I could focus with. And so goes on with the children back home, they’re basically always on the move because they’re on the street or the women are taking care of their parents. We want to create something that everyone in that space feels comfortable [with], everyone can leave feeling like they learned something, they can go home knowing that there’s a better tomorrow, there’s a better Jua, there’s a better sun coming up.
After the loss and challenges that you’ve faced, what keeps you motivated to succeed?
What keeps me motivated? Well, I’m not supposed to be here. That’s what really keeps motivating me and that’s kinda what has kept me out from all the troubles as a youth, I never really got into any trouble because I knew that life’s too short, I gotta seize every opportunity that I get and if I ever settle, that will probably be my last day, that would be my last breath. So that’s what motivates me, because I’m not supposed to be here, but I’m very grateful and I’m very blessed to be here, so that’s my motivation.
Before we go, is there anything I haven’t asked, or you haven’t mentioned yet?
One thing I would say is that I’m taking a leap of faith. I’m hopeful, I’m optimistic that this is going to happen, but I also know that there’s gonna be something that tells me that I cannot. So because I am hopeful that the sun tomorrow is going to rise again, I am optimistic that this is going to happen.
To help Orest and the Jua Foundation build this school visit: www.wearejua.ca.