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.