A Tale of Two Baskets

Building partnerships is a wonderful aspect of the mission in Rwanda. Bringing children together and teachers together. For over a year, The Child Care Center at Hort Woods on the Penn State campus has been "Picture Pals" with a class at the Cyakabiri Preschool in Rwanda. They have shared drawings and stories about themselves as well as compared what is the same and what is different in their classrooms.

Most recently they are comparing baskets that are unique to their geographic regions. Each are hand-made and have stories to share. The Rwanda basket, given at weddings filled with beans or rice represents Sharing, Saving and Solidarity. The apple basket, made by a local artisan in Pennsylvania, is made of maple and ash. The children visited trees on the campus to have their photos taken and picked leaves to press then sent to Rwanda with me. Booklets were made using photographs to show how each of the baskets were made.

In August I took 7 Rwandan preschool teachers and 9 teens from Urukundo to see this demonstration by a woman basket maker. For many it was the first time they had seen someone in their own country make the baskets. Learning continues to open new horizons across the world.

Conversations and observations will continue as children compare these baskets. What they are used for, trees and fruit in each country and stories of those that make the baskets.

What is next? Handmade musical instruments.

New Primary School

Thank you for being patient while I took a break from my Blog. It has been a busy fall as I was making many new connections with schools, local organizations, individuals and churches. Did I say I was "retired"? Now I am writing again to share with you all the blessings. Blogs that will lead up to my next trip in March 2013.

When our team left Rwanda in September, the new primary school was still in the early stages of construction with walls going up. Our team committed to sponsoring one of the 3 classrooms and have almost reached our goal. Now it is nearing completion for the January start of school.

Desks and chairs for the 80 students are being made in Rwanda. I thank the many groups and individuals that are stepping up to help purchase these as well as bookcases and storage cabinets. Soon these desks will be full of excited, smiling children, ready to learn.

Who are these children? The recent graduates, 6 year olds from the Cyakabiri Preschool. Children that have been in school for a year because many in the US have supported Mama Arlene's vision for education. Luki and Claude, from the Urukundo Children's Home, are best friends and ready to meet new educational challenges.

Photos of the first day of school in mid-January will be posted! So check back!

My next blog will feature school and classroom to classroom partnerships called "picture pals".

Starting Again

The same team from North Carolina met with another young boy, also 14 years old. There is no one in his family except a cousin who is also 14. They have been on their own for several years.

With ZOE he started a charcoal business, gathering wood and burning it. With a small grant he actually paid adults to work for him. The night before he was going to pack it in bags and take it to sell all the charcoal was stolen. You see how vulnerable children are.

But that did not stop he and his cousin who were living in a small building with other individuals. They had a mat on the floor with a tarp closing off their living space 8x8. But it was inside.

Determined they became a part of a banana juice business. He and others harvest the bananas and working with a large wooden trough they press and kneed the pulp. He then filters it and sells it.

Because it is not safe for several of these young children, a 4 room building is being constructed for them to call home. When he was sick others in ZOE pooled the little money they had so he could go to the clinic. They are family and work together to bring a new life to each other.

14 year old

There are many stories about the ZOE Orphan Empowerment program that I will continue to share them. Five members of our ZOE team from a church in North Carolina are also supporting a working group called Hope. We visited a 14 year old boy and his 2 younger brothers.

Their mother died just after the birth of their youngest brother. The two youngest went to live with a woman nearby leaving him on his own at 7 years old. When the boys got older they went to live with the oldest who at that time was 11.

Now with ZOE they are learning about healthy living. They share a bed off the floor and have containers for their beans. They have one pig and one goat and hope to get a cow. This is the first time they have beans to eat.

They thank ZOE for bringing them into the community of other orphans so they are not alone. He plans to have a business once he is trained. They have been on the program for just 3 months.

Hope now....where there was no hope!!!

A New House

We arrived at our first gathering of members of the Twiyubake group while they were constructing a house for Timothy. Alice a social worker and John Pierre the associate director of ZOE were traveling with us. Siluver the group's mentor joined us at the house. Zoe brings adults together to help in the initial guidance and development of the working group.

Leaders from the group emerge along with one head of household to form the core of the group that is responsible for decision-making and caring for the health and well-being of all 58 orphans. Since the group was just identified in April they are still developing as a group and identifying leaders. They most likely will meet with leaders of another working group that has been together for 2 years. Zoe is raising up and empowering orphans to be leaders, successful in business and caring individuals.

This is the first house they are building as a group and it will take 1 month. Timothy greeted us with a huge smile and a hug for all we are doing to help them. He came to a nearby community, as a teenager and alone, to be with relatives. Unfortunately they did not want to feed another child so they chased him away to live on the streets. Zoe found him in poor health and very malnourished eating only 3 meals a week. He was invited to be a part of Twiyubake and now has food, soon a new home, hope and a future. He kept thanking Dave and I and said he looks forward to seeing us next year to share all he will be blessed with, most importantly this new family.

We too look forward to seeing how God is working in his life and those in the Twiyubake Working Group.

Note how easily they carry the heavy mud bricks and how we struggle to carry them. They are definitely heavy!!

Twiyubake

When I returned from Rwanda in November I knew there was more I wanted to do to help the children of that country. 800,000 orphans kept weighing on my heart. So I contacted ZOE ministry a non-profit that has an orphan empowerment program described in a previous blog.

I contacted them and made a commitment to support a working group of 60-80 orphans over 3 years. Several friends and acquaintances from different churches joined me to support something powerful happening in Rwanda. And this was it. Eleven households joined me to be a part of ZOE. And now we are supporting the Twiyubake Working Group of 58.

Their challenges: living on the streets, no food, no education and loneliness because of the stigma. Now they will
work together. With a grant they purchased a field to cultivate and harvest cassava. It will take a year before it can be harvested. After that harvest is 4 times a year. They will also have grants for kitchen gardens, animals and constructing homes.

Twiyubake means synergy, rebuilding community. They have no family and now they have a family of 58. They had no hope and now they have hope. They were homeless and now they are sharing and building homes. They had no way to support themselves and they will begin to cultivate land together and within 3 years have businesses.

I was told that it would be difficult to see the group as they were not doing well yet. They were just identified in April, 2 months after I made the commitment. A social worker worked in the Ruhango district to seek out orphans in 4 out of 9 sectors. We were seeing hundreds of orphans struggling. Now there was hope for a group we will be praying for.

As we met one group working on Timothy's house they promised to take care of all the support they will receive and to multiply it in order to have a good life in their future. They want to make us,their new family, proud. Hope has been restored in their hearts.

Felix

Our first home visit with the Twiyubake Working group (see description under Twiyubake blog entry) was with Felix 18 and his sister Ernestine 16 and brother Venuste 14. Their mother died in 2002 and father in 2005 both of HIV Aids. Their aunt came to take care of them but in 2007 she took everything they had in their house and left. All they had was their house and land. This house is in need of many repairs so they pray they will have a new house built in a year or two on their land.

Life has been very difficult since 2007 with this family barely surviving. He was 13, his sister 11 and brother 9. Yet they stayed together. Felix dropped out of school to focus entirely on finding food any way he could.

When ZOE came to their community April 2012 they were selected to join the group. He said ZOE has helped him fight the "spirit of loneliness in his heart" as they were completely isolated. Now they work with the group doing activities. Other orphans stop and visit them.

He shared his drawing. He dreams of a new house and that children will not have to carry such heavy loads for so little food. He is sad about the death of his parents but could not draw a coffin to represent their death.

His principles are to pray, respect others, be peaceful with others and to love his fellow community. He is also dealing with the fact his sister is HIV positive but through ZOE is receiving medicine.

He received a grant and bought a pig that someone else is helping him raise. He has land to cultivate but he cannot do it himself. The working group was just created in April 2012 so until they are more organized as a group he has his neighbors cultivate and he gets a portion. I can't wait to see them next year and the progress they will have made. It is by baby steps that they will
pull themselves out of their hopelessness to a new life. And they give all the thanks to ZOE and God. So inspiring.

When we arrived we were told they lived down the hill from the road. We soon realized we were in for a hike down, down, then across the valley to their home. You can see how isolated they are.