Trip to Africa that Inspired The Moses Fund
By Kiro
From late 2001 into 2002 Scott and Jim Borgman and Dan Steward from Costa Mesa, California’s The Crossing Church and I met weekly. We discussed all kinds of ways to help Africa. Then in April 2002, even though I am Muslim, they helped me buy a ticket home.
I needed to see Africa, but even more I needed to see my mom. Because of the war in Burundi, where she lives, we hadn't been together since 1985. The war continued, but my mom (to my left) was able to travel with other family members to her sister's in Uganda to meet me.
After staying in Kampala, Uganda with my family for a few days, I took a short road trip south through neighboring Rwanda , a country that is a little smaller than Maryland.
In Butare, Rwanda I met a woman, around thirty years old, who has seven children and no husband. She has enough land for a garden so her family can eat, but no money to send her children to school. She is sad that without an education they have no future. There are a lot of people like this lady.
In Mahoko I met Vladimir, Kiki, Hulbert, and Godbert. They have been adopted by a good Samaritan who would like to send them to school but has no money. These boys are lucky, but still need help.
There are few orphanages in Rwanda. I only saw one which was burned down during the war and has not been rebuilt. There are thousands of children on the streets who beg for their survival, like the ones at this intersection.
I spent the day with these boys. They told me that two of them had parents but they all beg for food and sleep in the street, in someone's garage, or anywhere they can find. Of course they don't go to school. For child survivors of the 1994 ethnic war, this is the only life they remember.
I traveled all the way to Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo to see what the January 2002 volcano had done. The site was truly amazing.
Right next to Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC), formerly Zaire, is Gisenyi in Rwanda. Both Gisenyi and Goma are on Lake Kivu. You can go from country to country through the back yards.
While I was in Gisenyi across the border from Goma, where the volcano caused so much devastation in January, 2002, my friend Caritas Murashi, owner of the Regina Hotel, took me to visit a school. Schools everywhere lack what they need, but imagine in Africa. I came home to Costa Mesa wanting to do something to help.