April 2009
We Can Help Survivors of the Rwanda Massacre
Raped, widowed, and infected with the HIV/AIDS virus, these hardworking victims of the Rwanda genocide long for a chance to support themselves and the 125 children they care for. With your help we can make it happen.
I recently had the privilege of visiting for the second time the beautiful and fertile country of Rwanda. On both occasions, I stopped to see the Genocide Museum in Kigali, where the heart-wrenching story of the brutal genocide of 1994 is told. Buried in a mass grave are more than 250,000 Rwandans massacred during those terrible days.
During the 100-day massacre, more than a million men, women, and children were slain. Tens of thousands of women were left widowed. Hundreds of thousands of children were ophaned. Thousands of women were infected with the HIV/AIDS virus—many of them deliberately.
Today, Rwandans are working to recover from that dark time in their history, to rebuild their nation, and to bring about reconciliation between victims and perpetrators of the genocide. Christians have been at the forefront of these efforts. While in Kilgali in January, I met with Tracy Stone, Director of Rwanda Partners, a U.S. based organization working to bring help and healing to the nation.
One very worthy project is the Wirira Widows Farm, comprised of 56 widows—most of whom were raped during the genocide, leaving 34 of them with HIV/AIDS. They have come together to provide a support system and to help one another to rise up out of the terrible poverty they face. They care for a total of 125 children— their own and the orphans they have taken in. The women live in Bugesera—a region where people suffer from rampant malnutrition. Working with Rwanda Partners since 2006, they have formed a cooperative with a steering committee to oversee their activities.
They have saved money and organized them- selves into four small groups according to their skills. Rwanda Partners provides training in project management, accounting, and in dealing with tax requirements.
Rwanda Partners has purchased five acres of land for them to cultivate in Nyamata, where most of the widows live. The project will have two components: egg and corn production.
There is a great demand for eggs and ground corn flour in the local markets of Bugesera as well as in the capital city of Kigali. The farm should produce 300 eggs a day. Besides supplying the widows and their children with much-needed nutrition, the surplus will be sold in the local markets.
To provide additional help, Rwanda Partners has financed a corn grinder machine and a shop for the Wirira widows to sell the corn flour they produce. In the first four months of production, they expect to sell 3.5 tons of corn flour.
Tracy Stone says that in their five years of work in Rwanda they have not met a more wounded or more deserving group of people than the women of Wirira, who have worked hard to overcome so much and shown tremendous growth in their lives over the past three years.
Charis International, with your help, seeks to provide the additional funds Rwanda Partners needs to complete the Farm Project, so that these widows can support themselves and the 125 children they care for.
Can you help with a gift that will make an big difference in the lives of these needy ones?
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Alec D. Brooks
