Mission statement:
RDDC is an international NGO that runs dance and educational programs for street children and underserved youth in post-conflict and developing countries. Using a three-part model, RDDC prepares street children to re-integrate and succeed in the formal education system while gaining valuable job skills through vocational training.
In Phase I, street children improve 11 cognitive skills through a standardized dance curriculum. In Phase II, children acquire job skills through vocational training (IT or English Language). In Phase III, top performing students are sponsored to attend local boarding schools – thereby exiting life on the street and giving youth the power to advance their own lives.
Vision: Improving Children’s Lives
RDDC aims to significantly improve the lives of children and youth in its focus countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Guinea, Rwanda) by equipping participating youth with a skill or knowledge base that they can leverage in the future. Dance, found at the core of each program, is used to help the children develop cognitive learning skills (ranging from memorization to retention/recall of information). RDDC trains a few of the most talented and committed students to become dancers or teachers directly involved with RDDC programs, but ultimately, serves the vast majority of students through the educational training associated with each program.
History:
RDDC is a 501(c)3 organization based in the United States. Working closely with international partners and RDDC field staff, the organization has run ongoing youth dance projects in three focus countries : Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Guinea. Each program is based on a standardized model created by RDDC and then tailored to the specific needs of the at-risk population being served. Starting in 2014, RDDC prioritized its program in Rwanda.
The present international orientation of RDDC is the company’s second growth phase. The company was created in 2005 with a focus on developing original, full-length contemporary ballets based on famous literary works, significant historical events and modern social issues. Read more...
Latest news:
- Have you ever taken 1 step back to leap hundreds of steps forward?
April 6, 2015
Rwanda
By Eugene Dushime“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” said the Bible.
That question was in my head when I was thinking about the life of vulnerable children I met in different circumstances. Today is the last day of March 2015. March 2015 is over now and we are waiting for March 2016, March 2017, as time goes on. We will never see March 2015 again but the memory of what happened will remain, and maybe some time in the near future we might need to skim through the letters in a book of March 2015.
The number of children being served by MindLeaps is increasing. MindLeaps is becoming a bigger family each year. Sending some vulnerable children to Boarding School or to Vocational Training School while providing a variety of useful skills at the MindLeaps Center is a major focus of MindLeaps. March 2014, MindLeaps opened the center in Kigali and started with a sample of fifteen street children. Now the center counts forty-five street children in and out the door everyday.
Rejected by his parents, Moise was always wondering what should be his future. Discouraged, he was not a regular dance and IT student in the beginning, but he kept trying hard until teachers realized that Moise was the top in his class. Moise was part of the first class of MindLeaps students when we signed a partnership with a local NGO called FidesCo. Moise never stopped trying to learn.
