The Children of Hope

Walking up a narrow alleyway in Kigali

Nothing is flat in Rwanda -- you are either on your way up or down in this "land of a thousand hills". There are no easy paths to follow. I think the same can be said of life here, as the country struggles with incredibly high levels of poverty and need. It is a constant challenge for those who seek to care for the marginalized. There are no easy answers, no simple solutions.

Children of Hope Manager, Esperance, with AEBR development director, Gato Munyamasoko

In January, Erica and I began giving oversight to the Children of Hope program in Rwanda that was started by the AEBR with Laura Ward and Patty Card in 2007. The Children of Hope is a joint ministry of Canadian Baptist Ministries, the Danish Baptist Churches and the Association of Rwandan Baptist Churches that serves over 1500 orphans and vulnerable children within Kigali, and the Southern and Eastern provinces of Rwanda.

For anyone coming from a place like Canada, it is incredibly difficult to wrap our minds around the idea of a "child-headed household". Yet, tens of thousands of child-led-households are a reality in Rwanda and the countries of sub-Saharan Africa where over 12 million children have become AIDS orphans (and that number doesn't include the untold number orphaned from conflict, war and genocide). In our travels throughout Rwanda, it has been heart breaking to meet young children, not much older than our own three kids, caring for one another in a shack without running water, electricity, nor even a bed. These are children without anyone to protect them, provide for them, guide them, or love them. Kids who have been left to fend for themselves after the trauma of watching their parents die.

Children of Hope has been the churches response to hundreds of child-led households. Unlike the Guardians of Hope who are able to bring AIDS orphans into their homes as part of their family, the Children of Hope must continue to live on their own for the lack of a guardian -- the need is just simply too great and there are not enough guardians to care for these children.

What COH does, instead, is match a cluster of child-headed households with an adult mentor from a church (often the mentors are already Guardians of Hope themselves). The mentor looks out for the children and is there to give support, advise and protection. Through the charity of the church, the children receive assistance with school fees, uniforms, access to health care, and the tending of a kitchen garden. Life is not easy. The path is not simple. But by God's grace none need walk it alone.

Esperance with Rev. Nkuyemurugero Japhet, Regional Minister for the AEBR in the Eastern Province of Rwanda

Over the past year, Canadian Baptist Ministries has been coming alongside the AEBR in alleviating a crisis in shelter for over a hundred vulnerable households. With new laws in Rwanda requiring all homes with traditional thatched roofing to be demolished and replaced with ones constructed with at least iron sheeting, there became an urgent need to house the poorest of the poor. "They destroyed so many homes without preparing the people!" explained Rev. Japhet. In his community hundreds of families had no place to go as they were drive from their homes as they were demolished.

As the church banded together in response, the highest priority was obvious -- within their community were several child headed households -- homes where a orphaned children were left on their own to care for themselves. "With the support of Canadian Churches who gave $20,000 dollars, we have built one hundred homes for families who were homeless," shared Esperance."We cried, but Canadians heard our cry!"

According to Rev. Japhet, "In our region 20 child-headed households have received new houses with iron sheet roofs.... we are so thankful!"

"Thank you all for helping us!"

In Prayer

* Please remember Esperance and her family as they travel this weekend to Burundi to be with her father who is in the late stages of his battle with cancer. We also think of her mother who is too ill to make the journey to be with her husband in hospital there.

* We continue to pray for the Children of Hope in Rwanda and for the funds to continue supporting this important ministry.

* We give thanks for the way that God's love and compassion is being seen through His church in Rwanda through their response to the dire needs of widows and orphans.