Brian and Alexis in the Field

This spring, Brian and Alexis will be visiting GlobalGiving projects in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia to learn more about the work that GlobalGiving projects are doing. We will be seeing firsthand how the funds that you have contributed are making an impact in these communities, and we want to show you the difference your donations have made. Along the way, we will be exploring all that East Africa has to offer. We invite you to join us on our two-month adventure by following our blog!

June 7, 2009

Feeding and Educating 50,000 Orphans in Rwanda: Project Number 2139

Location: Kigali, Rwanda

Help Rwandan School Children, run by CHF International, empowers Rwanda’s unsung heroes, the men and women that better the lives of the country’s many orphaned and vulnerable children, by providing them with financial resources and skills training. Theogere, a 26-year old, who has been caring for his two younger brothers since his parents passed away almost a decade ago, is one of these unsung heroes. Because of the free vocational training he received (now funded by CHF), Theogere and seven other child heads of households now run a restaurant and catering business. Prior to receiving skills training, Theogere, like his fellow business-owners, was barely scraping by, doing any odd job to pay rent and send his siblings to school. Today, having been empowered by CHF, and its local partner, AEE (one of twelve partner organizations), this already amazing older brother can be a superhero for Eric and Jean-Paul, his two little brothers. Aside from helping their older brother, Eric and Jean-Paul benefit from CHF’s school sponsorship program, making it possible for them to buy school uniforms and scholastic materials.

During our visit to CHF we met another unsung hero, this compassionate woman runs an orphanage called Village of Peace, for 88 children, ages 1 day old to 18 years. CHF supports her mission to improve the lives of these children by sponsoring each to go to school. Village of Peace had been struggling to provide milk for its babies and pay for cooking feul. They approached CHF with a very innovative solution: cows. With the financial support of CHF, and the technical help of a local university, Village of Peace purchased 4 cows (which have now multiplied into 14), whose milk feeds the babies and whose dung (that’s right, poop!), now fuels the stoves to cook the children’s meals, using a sanitary, cutting edge biogas system.

It is because of these unsung heroes, and the support of GlobalGiving donors, that CHF is able to assist 43,000 orphans and vulnerable children in Rwanda, each year.

To learn more about this project and how you can help, visit: www.globalgiving.com/2139.

2 years ago