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Founder's story
The founder of Lifeline For Youth and Family is Ben Schadrac who lives in the State of Florida. He survived the genocide of the Rwandan Tutsis people in 1994. This organization was incorporated in the State of Florida in 2005 under the name "War Survivors Ministries". Its main mission was caring for the orphaned students of genocide in Rwanda. From 2006 till 2008, Ben had the opportunity to work with many students in need of support in Florida schools as a mental health counselor, and he saw first hand how these two groups of disadvantaged students (The Rwandan and the Floridian disadvantaged students) could inspire one another to discover the power of college education, and get motivated to pursue it with great confidence. Currently, Ben works in Florida correctional institution as mental health counselor for the inmates. Working with multiple inmates as young as 20 years old, reminds him the imperative necessity of reaching out to disadvantaged students in our community with a message that they could be college bound instead of prison bound.
Being a disadvantaged student is very well known by Ben Schadrac, from his personal experience. He is the first and the only one in his entire family of origin who was able to have a high school diploma. After his high school in 1979, he went on and he received a Law degree in 1983 from the National University of Rwanda. After surviving the Rwandan Tutsi genocide in 1994, he found asylum in the United States, with his wife and children. He went back to college and received a Bachelor degree in Organizational management from Warner Southern University in 1996. In 2000, he obtained a Masters degree in Mental Health from Webster University. He Currently works for the State of Florida Department of Corrections as a Mental Health Specialist, where he enjoys making a difference in lives of inmates, with the main goal of helping them to have a successful re-entry in their communities when released.
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