Not the usual summer school experience
HOME VISIT: Whanganui student (and former WHS student) Scott Flutey back from Rwanda and the Commonwealth Summer School.
Student Scott Flutey came home to Whanganui for the weekend.
It was his first visit back since he had been at the Commonwealth Summer School in Rwanda in August.
The 23-year-old, who has a Bachelor of Honours in history and international relations, was the first New Zealand student to have been selected for the summer school which has been running for six years.
The summer school was instigated in 2011 to provide a forum for high-quality students from every corner of the Commonwealth to discuss issues of global importance. It is hosted in a different country each year.
Mr Flutey was granted a bursary to attend the school and said although he was slightly fearful heading off to Africa alone, his time there was wonderful and steeped in culture."
The 40 selected students were mostly South African and African, he said.
The school in the capital of Kigli was at the University of Rwanda which is still quite new and modern, Mr Flutey said.
Things have dramatically changed in Rwanda since 1994 and the genocide, known officially as the genocide against the Tutsi people.
It had been mass slaughter of about 800,000 Tutsi in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority government.
Because so many men died during the genocide huge numbers of women were left without partners, which has meant now there is a portfolio in Government for a Minster of Gender and Family Promotion.
Thousands of women in Rwanda lost their men and were left in charge of most of the children, Mr Flutey said.
"The ministry help these women with their growing sons and strengthening family unity. I was amazed to know there are now 64 women in the Rwanda Parliament," he said.
Mr Flutey's honours thesis about the many patriotic women's groups in New Zealand during the Boer War, has sparked the interest of a publisher in South Africa.
"It is finished but I still need to check it and read again before it goes to my supervisor, then off to the publisher."
When he comes home to Whanganui during the lengthy summer break Mr Flutey works for the Whanganui District Council and is doing an internship at the Alexander Library.
"I'm very fortunate. It is the perfect job," he said.
As a small boy Mr Flutey went to Carlton School then on to Whanganui High School.
"I love being in Wellington but I try to come home as much as possible, too."
His time in Rwanda was spectacular, he said.
"I am still so thrilled I was given the chance".
By Lin Ferguson
Wanganui Chronicle