September newsletter

Dear Support Person,

Our need is great.

The virus has not erased the need for support for the children we care for. Have you sent your support check for your child in 2020? This includes university students. Check your files. Your yearly support is so needed. Even though our kids are in families and foster families and universities are closed, there is still a need to care for them. Many have outgrown their clothes as kids do. Food is essential to all ages. When your pants are way above your ankles and your shirt and other clothes are too tight or your dress is too short and your panties don’t fit anymore, it is not so good.

Would you like to do something special for your Rwandan child? I urge all sponsors to remember their child is special and help us care for them physically, medically and emotionally.

Here’s what one sponsor did: Claude’s sponsor sent funding to Hope Made Real in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, USA, designating it for Claude’s birthday. Birthdays are not noticed much in families in Rwanda where just feeding your family is a struggle. Olive, our child advocate, took little Claude to the local shop to buy some new clothes.

This is what the gift purchased.

His smile says it all. He is one happy boy. I am also happy. Thank you, Support Person. Your gift is so appreciated. A gift to make one little boy feel loved.

Hope Made Real: The book

Get to know Claudine. Have you met our sight-impaired member of the Urukundo family, Claudine?

This photo is from the book.

She’s now a teen. Her glasses are her favorite color.

When you purchase the book, you help Urukundo care for Claudine and other special children.
I can’t wait for travel to be safe again so I can travel and share the book with many of you.
In the meantime, maybe we could do a Zoom contact. Are you willing to try?

The full title of the book is “Hope Made Real: The Story of Mama Arlene and the Children of Urukundo.” My daughter, Rev. Dr. Patricia Brown, and I wrote it together.

The book is available in both paperback and Kindle versions on Amazon.

Paperback and ebook (AZW, EPub and PDF) versions also can be ordered directly from this bookshop where a larger amount goes to Urukundo..

The book also can be purchased from Barnes & Noble in paperback and NOOK formats.

Path to Learning

The Path to Learning started in 2012.

Now that the wall is finished, the stones on the Path to Learning will be mounted on the inside wall.

The very first stones on the Path to Learning were mine and Ellen Galloway’s. Ellen has contributed her talents in helping to edit my book, “Hope Made Real,” due to be published very soon.

These stones are an example of how the entire wall will look. The stones will not be walked on.

What is the path? Well, it started and remains as a way to secure funding for education. The idea was -- and is -- that a $100 gift for funding education would result in a stone being added to the path in the donor’s name. Great idea.

Visitors liked the stone idea as a commemoration of their visits to Urukundo. Now it also is a memorial to those we have loved and have moved beyond the hurts of this life.

The fund and the path continue to grow. The path has gone from being a path to being a memory lane with plaques on the wall.

New wall space is available for stones. They can be in honor of, in memory or with love.

The originator of the idea of the Path to Learning was John Green, a fellow Christian from Saint John’s Newberry United Methodist Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, USA, and a former treasurer of Hope Made Real.

Supplies for the community

Knowing the plight of many of our neighbors, the Urukundo Worship Center provided supplies for neighborhood families to have food essentials.

Rice, flour, beans and cooking oil were distributed by Urukundo Worship and its fellowship.
The congregation and its leaders hope that what little what we can do will make a difference in the lives of so many.

Hand soap also was included as washing hands is an important part of protecting against the coronavirus.

Supplies were placed in paper bags (called envelopes in Rwanda).

Paper bags were then put into cloth bags, making the supplies easy to carry.

Those who received the help were grateful and thanked God. Taking photos can be a problem, so we share just a few.

The large bags are a gift from ChicoBag. We thank them for their faithfulness in donating large and smaller bags to the Mama and Baby Project and the Urukundo Foundation.

More classrooms

In an earlier newsletter, I shared the need for bricks to build two classrooms. The response was awesome. Thank you to all who helped to purchase bricks. Funds came in to buy not only the needed bricks but also to complete building the two classrooms.

Work began at once. Although the classrooms were not expected to be finished soon, the donations for building the classrooms were more than enough for bricks, and we went ahead and finished the two classrooms. Never dreaming the coronavirus would happen and funding would be a bit scarce.The mandated shutdown took place March 21, but the sector allowed Urukundo to finish building using only two workers from the community on the site at a time. Keeping social distancing.

It took until the end of April to finish the project.

Two new classrooms finished and ready for the start of school. The computer lab now will have a home base. The second room is to reduce the number of children per classroom. We try to keep the number in a classroom to no more than 30 children.

Thank you all for the gifts that made this possible.

Heads up

Mama’s book went to the publisher on Feb. 26.

Soon it will be available on Amazon as well as in bookstores.

Some of the photos from the book

Hey, I, Mama Arlene, was a little girl long ago with a mom and dad and later children of my own.

Hope Made Real is the final chapter of my life, and “Hope Made Real” is the name of the book. My family now includes children from my adopted country, Rwanda.

Read all about it. Proceeds from the book go to the Urukundo Foundation and Learning Center.

After publication, I will travel to the USA for book readings and signing events. To host an event with me, contact: Patricia Brown: pdbrown@spiritworks.org.

New Year’s thoughts

A gentle reminder as you begin the New Year:

Having a goal and striving to reach it is a must.
Every child deserves the opportunity to set such a goal.
Providing education is a step in the right direction.
Help give hope where hope is essential.

Mama

Improvements on the Urukundo campus

We had many improvements in the last year.

Communications
A big improvement was Wi-Fi was installed to cover the school, dental clinic and all of Urukundo Village. The village includes the business offices, farm office, pastor’s office, guest houses and Mama’s house

Protection
Lightning arrestors were installed on the school grounds, including the play area and the entire campus.

The football (soccer) field was filled and leveled, making it a safer play area for the school children.

Transportation
A second big school bus was purchased in January 2019. With earned income from the buses, we now have enough to purchase a third big bus. We have sold the minibus and are applying that money to the purchase of the third big bus. The minibus is too small for the number of children needing transportation at this time. It was a great starter bus, but it has outlived its purpose. Not enough seats.

Good looking bus. In service on January 29, 2020.

It is good to know the profit from the vehicles improves our ability to supply safe transportation for more children.

Sewing Center
Twenty-four sewing machines were purchased and added to the Urukundo Sewing Center.

A classroom large enough for the Sewing Center was built and desk-chair combinations were purchased for student use.

Library
A new extension was added to the school library.
The library now has space, tables, chairs and electrical outlets for computer classes and can accommodate older children and adults.

Yes, it was a very good year.

Urukundo’s purpose

Urukundo decided that, because of a lack of necessary funding, construction on the school would stop at least for now. It seemed like a good idea. It was for Urukundo but not for a community in need.

There is more than one way to be a good neighbor and part of the community. Need is always present, and charity is not wanted. People want to work and earn some money, especially at Christmastime.

What could Urukundo do to help? Our field needed to be cleared and leveled. That would benefit our Learning Center and the community.

Thanks to faithful donors, we were able to have a work day, and 17 families with no income earned a little money. Their children’s Christmas was brighter. Food is essential.

Now Urukundo has land cleared for the next project in our future. That project is construction of four more classrooms needed for the primary school.

We are blessed, and it is so important we pass the blessing along. Hope you all had a great Christmas.