How do you say no when God sends a baby?

Surprises come every day here at Urukundo Home for Children and in the month of July we were presented with a great challenge.

This baby was thrown away. No father, no mother, and no name. Just a child of God. He was found in the bush and brought to us by the police asking us to care for this two-month-old baby.



He is very special as he now has a family of 38 brothers and sisters, a mama (me) and a papa (John) who love him very much.  We are not set up for a two-month-old child, but we have the most important thing a child needs: lots of love.  Keep us in your hopes and prayers as we take on another challenge in the children God places in our lives.

Realizing the Need and Stepping up to the Challenge

It is clear to us now that this will not be the last thrown-away child that will come to us.  So we will need to plan for the future of a nursery with a mama and those things needed to care for infants.  Most of the things we need, like diapers, cribs, blankets and clothes, can be purchased here.  I guess the bottom line is that we need the money to buy the things that all babies need and to build a home to care for them.



We can give these babies a future.  I am praying someone or a group of someones will want to help us build the house for babies thrown away because a mother can't take care of them and survival is the key.

Please pray for this child's mother. She must have struggled for two months to care for her baby and could not. I do not know her circumstances, so I do not judge her. I just know how heartbreaking it must be to know that if you keep your child, it will die, and to throw it away may give it a chance for a better life.
I am thinking that this is another reason why God has been so faithful to the work of Hope Made Real. We serve in mission and serve children.

We have named him David Chad Kayitare. Yes, John and Hope have shared their last Name with him.

With this child's arrival comes another: we have found a young woman who is an orphan of the genocide and needs a home and some little money to live.  She is now the mama for David as she will be caring for our new child, bringing two together and helping restore the families and communities of Rwanda.

God gives us so much and expects much in return.  Join us in celebrating this new child in our midst.

Meet Jean Paul Nziyumanganya

We have a new boy, bringing our total number of boys to fourteen.

Jean Paul Nziyumanganya is fourteen years old.  He is in Primary 5 and a handsome young man.  His voice is currently changing.  I can hear it when he takes part in the song before meals and I smile.  I remember my boys during this time in their struggles to become men.

His father is unknown.  His mother abandoned him when he was 2 years old.  His caretaker was an uncle or neighbor who can no longer care for this boy.  He came to me on our road and spoke in a broken English “I am orphan.  I want to live with you.”  He was brave to do that and that kind of faith needs rewarding.  We have gone through the process and now we have legal custody and he is ours and has a home and a family who love him.  He is showing leadership ability with the younger kids and our little girls think he is the perfect big brother.  His goal is “to become a doctor for children.”  He is a happy boy and a very positive addition to our family.

Divine

Hello, I am Divine, one of Mama Arlene's children of The Urukundo Home for Children in Muhanga District, Rwanda. I am Mama Arlene's "first born". No, I am not the youngest. But I was the first girl-child to come to live under Mama Arlene's roof. Now thirty-five others have come. All of us are fully housed, cared for and given an education. And, an additional 245 children from the region join us at the community school with sponsored scholarships from Hope Made Real's Scholarship Program.

I came because I could no longer live in my family home. Others come as orphans because all of their living relatives have died of AIDS or malaria. Still other older children are survivors of the genocide.

Each of us now has our own bed. The girls are housed in apartments with bunk beds with a house-mother. The boys live in a house with four bedrooms and four bunk beds in each room with a house-mother. Because of kind people I am most fortunate to now have food, bedding, clothing, school supplies, a mosquito net, lodging, education, medical insurance and basic medical care, utilities, transportation, and, of course, water.

Mama Arlene rents the houses we currently live in, but we recently acquired land and are building the first of five cottages. The plan is to have ten children and a mama or parents in each cottage. This means our little home will grow so that soon I will have fifty brothers and sisters.