Work in Rwanda

Rwanda

For two weeks in August 2006 Medical Missionary News took a team to Kigali, Rwanda in order to get involved with projects, visiting aids patients, orphans and the sorting and distribution of the Container goods. 

Container arrives in Rwanda
The team beside a Container recently arrived from the UK 

The following reports detail some of the experiences of the team.

The Genocide Memorial in Kigali
Deirdre Davies writes - The Genocide Memorial in Kigali, opened in 2004, is situated off the Tarmac Road in the valley and along a steeply climbing dusty road with a view towards the hilltop city centre.

The outside area is given over to stark concrete slabs covering the final resting place of over 260,000 Kigali citizens whose lives were abruptly brought to an end in 1994. One of the mass graves is left open to show how tightly the bodies were fitted in. This bleakness is offset by quiet gardens, flower beds and trellised walkways, enabling visitors to reflect in peaceful surroundings.

Open Grace in Rwanda
The Open Grave 

Inside, the museum depicts life before, during and after the genocide. Additional sections display a photo gallery of victims and a collection of their clothes and bones, the skulls often betraying the ruthlessness of the massacres.

The final words of the “Life during the Genocide” section are “Rwanda is Dead” To many at the time it must have seemed so and it is only right and proper that there is a memorial. However, the more significant memorials are found in small humble homes but this time they are “living stones” declaring Christ as their husband, encouraging and helping others along life’s now difficult path and still smiling, despite all that has befallen them. These are the memorials offering hope to all around them and declaring that Rwanda is very much alive.

Child Headed Households
Jill and Paula Westgate write - early one morning we unpacked the boxes in the recent container sent from MMN. Susanna, a project social worker informed us of how many children were living in each household. Using colourful blankets we made up gift bundles that included at least one set of new clothes, shoes, toiletries, sheets and blankets for each child. 

Jill and Paula Westgate
Jill and Paula Westgate 

At the beginning of the new school term Ellie, the overseer of the Orphans Project, called the children to collect their gifts along with their school fees. This was the first opportunity we had to meet Claude, now 18 and Marie Louise, aged 14 who we have been sponsoring for the last nine years.

We were invited into their home which was constructed with cement walls and an earth floor. Compared to others they were very fortunate but it was a real joy and privilege to meet them at last.

What made it extra special was that Peter and Jenny Andrews had seen one of our gift parcels in the container and had held it back so that we could present the gifts in person. What a thrill!

GOOD NEWS (INJKURU NZIZA) CHURCHES IN RWANDA
Brian Davies writes - the Inkrur Nziza Association is the government required legal umbrella for almost 140 Christian Brethren fellowships spread throughout Rwanda. Their congregations number anything from 30 in a small village to 300 to 400 in the city centre church of Kigali. 

Kigali Church, Rwanda
The city centre church in Kigali
 

After independence the new Rwandan government granted Inkuru Iziza a plot in the heart of the city for building a house, church, bookshop and premises for radio and other work. This prime strategic site now houses the offices for the post-1990 social projects run by the churches.

It now constitutes a matter for prayer since the government is demanding a major rebuilding project in keeping with the high-rise buildings that commercial ventures are putting around it. An architect who is a member of the church has produced plans and computer graphics for an ambitious building development which would both conform to
the government’s vision for the city centre
and meet the ever growing needs and opportunities of God’s work in the country. Raising the estimated £750,000 themselves is beyond the church’s means but if they do not confirm to the government their intention to rebuild, the site will be requisitioned, resulting in the loss of strategic impact for the formidable work that is being carried on by energetic, enterprising and visionary Christians.

The house was occupied in 1990 by Peter and Jenny Andrews of Cardiff, who had worked in Kigali for four years in the early
80’s under the auspices of Tear Fund. Based now in Cardiff, they make several visits each year and use the house as their base as they visit projects all over the country. These impressive projects provide support and/or training for widows, orphans, AIDS victims, refugees, ex-prostitutes, handicapped children, would-be trade’s people, tailors, cooks and caterers, church leaders and evangelists.

Disability work in Kigale, Rwanda
Fred Holmes writes - this is another aspect of the work of “Good News” Churches in Rwanda of which there are 3 in Gikondo, on the outskirts of Kigale.

There is a disability and orthopaedic clinic, meeting the needs of the disabled, with physiotherapy services and non-operative orthopaedic procedures such as serial plasters and splints to minimise disability. This is very ably run by a locally qualified physiotherapist who is supported by a local orthopaedic surgeon.

The second part of the work is a disability workshop, which makes quality artificial limbs, wheelchairs and other appliances, a number of these workers having been trained in the trades workshops run by the churches. 

Disability Work
Disability Work
 

The third aspect is the building on the same site of a small children’s orthopaedic hospital. This is just a skeleton at present, though progress is rapid. We need to pray that the right Christian staff can be recruited for this major venture.

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Christians working with the Developing World

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