Immerse Education Blog Competition 2026 - The Receipt

Immerse Education Blog Competition 2026 – The Receipt

Updated: 08.06.2026

Read time: 2 min read

Category Two: Supercurriculars – A Personal Experience

What does it actually cost to keep someone from raising their hand?

mend – /mend/ verb.

From Old English mendan, to reform, to make better. Oxford English Dictionary (2024): ‘to repair something that is broken or damaged.‘ The word assumes the broken thing is the object. Sometimes the broken thing is the system around it.

TAILORING RECEIPT – NYAMIRAMBO, KIGALI

Collar replacement (frayed) – 400 RWF
Hem re-stitched (trousers) – 300 RWF
Knee patch (worn through) – 500 RWF
Bleach fade treatment (attempt) – 200 RWF
TOTAL – 1,400 RWF

Note (pencil): ‘3rd time this term. Maybe just buy new.’

A new school uniform in Rwanda costs 6,500 RWF. In a single term, a classmate’s family had spent 4,200 RWF on repairs and still owned a uniform that was visibly, unmistakably worn. They were paying more to stay inside a problem than it would cost to leave it.

I started with 800 RWF, saved from two weeks of skipping the snack I did not strictly need. What I built was a quiet exchange: uncollected garments from a local tailor, offered through private conversations, with a minimum contribution of 500 RWF recycled back into the fund. No charity list. No names on a board. A system with dignity designed into its structure.

Six weeks later: eleven uniforms exchanged, 7,150 RWF circulating, two families permanently out of the repair cycle. My classmate raised his hand twice last Thursday. It was the first time I had seen him do it.

I want to study law and international relations. Not because I believe institutions solve things on their own. Because somewhere between 800 RWF and 7,150 RWF, I understood that the structures deciding who participates, who raises their hand, who stands at the centre of the assembly photograph, were designed by people. Which means they can be redesigned. The receipt taught me that.

So what does it actually cost someone to keep their hand down?