Project: Gisenyi
UMUBANO III PRIMARY SCHOOL
When we found UMUBANO in June 2003 it was unfinished, but being used by 560 students. With $3700 from THE MOSES FUND parents transformed it.
- The lava covered floors were crushed and covered with concrete
- Furniture was built
- Doors and windows and chalkboards were installed
- Walls up under the eaves were completed
For UMUBANO III Primary School THE MOSES FUND would like to build two new classrooms and a latrine.
200 ORPHANS OF THE GENOCIDE
ESIG is an Islamic high school built by the same parents who built UMUBANO III. Attending ESIG are 200 orphans of the genocide, some Muslim, but mostly Christian, both Hutu and Tutsi, who live in a dormitory with very little to eat and not even enough beds for everyone who lives there.
Some of the orphans of the Rwandan genocide.
On the left are students. On the right is their leader who keeps them focused by leading cheers.
They requested:
- A bus
- A new dormitory
- A soccer field
- 70 scout uniforms
Jackie with her arm up & Tracie holding shirts.
There are a lot of things that ESIG needs, but THE MOSES FUND would like first to build them a soccer field.
MADODU & CLUB HOPE
Since December 2003 THE MOSES FUND has paid a salary to Madodu Aly who organized CLUB ANTI-AIDS HOPE which we met on our June 2004 trip.
Madodu with his family(left) Judy, Maji & Kiro with Club Hope in June 2004(right)
Club Anti-AIDS Hope at a party THE MOSES FUND had for them
In January 2004 THE MOSES FUND started paying rent for their location and minimal expenses.
Since December 2004 Club Hope has:
- Organized AIDS awareness for youth
- Put on AIDS theatrical events for the community
- Become a fun and safe haven for children too poor to go to school
In September 2005 THE MOSES FUND purchased a mill for Club Hope with the intention that it will sustain the club’s financial needs by grinding beans, cassava, corn and other grains for community members for a small fee. We then worked with Madodu to make a flier to advertise it.
Madodu replied to THE MOSES FUND by email:
I am very happy for the fliers it's very nice with Papias’ picture. This child is my personal friend. I tell you this is the best flier!!!
In December 2005 Madodu and Club Hope parted ways. The club kept the rental space and started working with Unicef to educate children and the community about HIV. THE MOSES FUND wishes Club Hope the best of luck in the new relationship with UNICEF and all their future endeavors.
It makes Madodu happy to be able to help Papias and his adoptive father, both of whom are blind
THE MOSES FUND still supports Madodu as he:
- Gets the mill project going
- Continues his work with children
POINT D'ECOUTE
Madodu is on the left of Aloys
Madodu introduced us to Aloys Kaberuka of POINT D'ECOUTE, A nonprofit supported by UNICEF. Aloys has identified the street children in Gisenyi since 1998, over 400 of them. He has placed more than 250 in homes and organized those parents into an association called SAVE THE CHILDREN ASSOCIATION so that as an organized group they can take better care of their children. Also when POINT D’ECOUTE no longer exists there will be a way already established for them to help themselves.
POINT D’ECOUTE also puts on “colonie de vacance”, a kind of vacation day camp for all the 1500 children of Gisenyi whether they have homes of not.
THE MOSES FUND gave $1400 to “colonie de vacance” in October 2004.
Children live on the streets of Gisenyi as a result of:
- The genocide and related conflicts
- AIDS and other illnesses
- Refugees of war and disaster from the Democratic Republic of Congo
Since our first trip in June 2003 THE MOSES FUND has wanted to build boarding schools for street children.
SAVE THE CHILDREN ASSOCIATION
Aloys Kaberuka introduced us to this association of families who have adopted orphans off the streets of Gisenyi. The mothers greeted us with tremendous warmth.
THE MOSES FUND would like to buy them a mill so they can grind cassava, grains and beans for their neighbors for a fee to help their association.
THE BATWA
In June 2004 Aloys from POINT D’ECOUTE took us up the mountain to meet a group of 20 families of BATWA (a.k.a. Twa or Pygmies). They are displaced, homeless and without work. Indigenous to the area and 2% of the population, the BATWA have traditionally lived in the forests but are being shoved out by deforesting and development.
When we first arrived they didn’t seem too happy to see us. Their leader made it clear that they had been visited by outsiders before but nothing ever came of it. They were tired of promises.
Maji on the left and KIro on the right
Two of their Elder Women
Two days later we bought them soap, blankets, cooking utensils and cups which cheered them up a little bit.
But they need much more. They don’t have jobs or homes. The technique they use for building in the forests doesn’t work on the mountain. A farmer let them live on his land and build this house at the top of the mountain in exchange for work. You could see the sky through the covering of vegetation.
THE MOSES FUND has written a grant proposal to teach the BATWA to build their own super adobe houses (see www.calearth.org) with the hope that they would then be able to do the same for others. So far we have not been able to keep our promise to them since our June 2004 visit. We are working on another way to help them.