Visitors

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Hope House - Our All-Purpose Center

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From 9am to 11am, Monday through Saturday, Hope House is full of activity. Legos, puzzles, hot potato, memory game, dominos, coloring, trucks, cars, airplanes etc inside.  Football, tag, running matches and parachute outside.
Come join in the fun! Volunteers are welcome. 
Present visitors work at Hope House.
Talia from Bloomsburg, PA and the kids do legos.
Soso teaching Meredith from Seattle, WA how to play picture dominoes.
Volunteer Rob James from California on his knees. Floor puzzles are great and this one is a map of the world. Educational as well as fun.
Claude and Rob joining forces to pick avocado.
Keenen James, Rob's son, plays with Becca & Claudine in Hope House.
Dad returned to the US after 8 days. Keenen remains with us for another 3 weeks.
Prince has a new best friend in Kyle. Kyle returned for the second time in this year. He is special for the kids.

 

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Visit from the Governor

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The Governor and a delegation from South Province visited Urukundo Village to view the water and solar pump project.
Our water system, thanks to Rotary and many friends of Urukundo, is an innovation in the area.
Gary Ehrig did the honors for Urukundo. He is a good ambassador.
Everyone there was pleased and thanked Urukundo for making South Province and Muhanga District a better place to live. 
The Governor of South Province  and our Muhanga District Mayor at the water project.

News from the Volunteers On Site

Louise our volunteer from the UK teaches YOGA to energetic boys & girls.
Louise is working on research for her PhD in Rwanda and comes each weekend to spend valuable time with our kids.
Volunteers Kyle from Texas, USA and Charley from Canada work with our ten o'clock group in Hope House activity room.
The map on the wall has proven to be worth its weight in gold.
Our kids and volunteer Camilo from Columbia discuss where Camilo's home is.
This month there were 12 visitors at Urukundo Village. These visitors are youth, and vary in the time they spend. Some came for several days, others came for weeks and yet others come for a month or more. 
We are blessed by these visitors and the work they have done while they were here.
8 different countries were represented : CANADA, COLUMBIA, FRANCE, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, UNITED KINGDOM, SWITZERLAND, UGANDA AND RWANDA.
Nikki and Lelia from NY, USA stand at attention with the students. They were excellent teachers' assistants.
Lelia assists teachers at Cyakabiri school for small children.
Jolly, a regular volunteer from Rwanda, does journal work with the students.
Maggie from Uganda came not only as a volunteer but became part of our permanent volunteer staff.
Our picture of Maggie did not turn out well - we'll try again so look for a picture of Maggie in next month's Newsletter.
Cornelia from Austria visited for a day and has vowed she will come back and stay longer next time.

Bruce and Margie Krogh, here from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, shared their visitors with Urukundo. We were honored by a visit with Hedda Schmidtke, a teacher from Carnegie Mellon.  Anita Kim and her husband Hyong Kim also from Pittsburgh.  It is always a pleasure for me to introduce new friends to Urukundo and its kids. Staff members Vincent, Oscar and yours truly got in the photo.
Mike (California), Charley (Canada), Camilo (Columbia) and Kyle (Texas) doing hard labor preparing the road to the land for the hoped-for primary school.
We are looking for partners for this project.
The old man of the volunteers getting in a few digs.
Gary from New Hampshire, USA.
Camilo from Columbia supervising.
Sore muscles tomorrow for Gary.
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What is there to do at Urukundo Village?

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Ask the 7 Students and 2 leaders from SMU in Texas, USA. They came for a day and worked hard.

Michael Dearman, Corbin Swagerty and Sargent Jimmy Winn,  the co-leader, worked at clearing the land in preparation for building the hoped-for primary school. This was the first work signaling the beginning of Project PRIMARY SCHOOL.

Oscar our administrator supervised.

The girls removed bricks from an old wall and we will reuse them to construct the chicken house.

Their leader Pat Davis and Haleigh Wagner work in the library. Indeed there are many jobs to do. Spending time with the children is an added bonus.

Thank you for coming and sharing SMU, Texas.

One child, one laptop. Corbin's research project in action.

It turned out Corbin's research project for school was the project ONE CHILD, ONE LAPTOP. He was delighted to see the actual laptops being used.

Ketetha Olengue (with baby Diane on her back) and the girls spent time with the babies and toddlers. The  girls helped with baths, and helped serve breakfast and lunch. The most fun was singing with Corbin on the guitar, sharing story and game time. Our kids loved every minute.

Visitors for April

Lycee and his family paid us a visit. Many of you will remember this young man as the bicycle champion with one leg.
Lycee lost his leg as a young boy to a land mine. He is amazing as he competes in bicycle races on a regular bike against others with two legs and wins the competitions. I've been proud to call him my friend since 2002, and he is a true friend to all of us here at Urukundo.
We welcomed Dr. Otto Fischer from Austria and the children from Verein Future for Kids – Zukunft für Kinder in Ruanda.
We had a wonderful time and his kids challenged our kids to a dance competition next time we get together.
Mama with Vincent (l) and Otto (r).
Visitors from Canada
Valeria Gagne and her mom Diane came for a day and returned to spend two more days at Urukundo and its kids.
Charlotte, another daughter, is coming to volunteer at Urukundo Foundation for an month starting June 8 and Mama was checking us out. We got a 5 star rating I think.
They bought a stone to be added to  the PATH TO LEARNING. while they were here.
During the school break from where she works, Amy Milkus, who is a very special person, came to work with us at Cyakabiri School. She worked very hard helping us prepare the new classrooms for the new students. Amy Milkus  is a tutor at Maranyundo Girls School in Nyamata, Rwanda. During the two weeks she was here she taught English as a second language to our Primary students and helped our teachers improve their English. After doing all this she found time to play with the toddlers in the nursery. Thank you Amy. The children miss you!

Volunteers of the Month

17 young Rotarians from SFB  came for a day as a work crew. They entered into the work in progress. After hours of labor and good food they joined the Urukundo Kids in a fast paced basket ball game. It was great fun for them and for our kids. I am delighted to say the teams playing included girls, our boys and the young men from SFB. Good thing too because they were all about 6 ft 8 and our guys are a bit on the shorter side.
Working in construction.

Painting Inside Walls.

Preparing the ground for planting. 

Visitor for March

Tina Pennington founder of the Non-Profit RAISED HANDS FOR AFRICA arrived for a 16 day work stay at Urukundo Village.

During her stay she learned how to make chapati.

Spent time with Diane at the King Faisal Hospital in Kigali. 

Shared hand made dolls with the nursery babies.

Worked each day in the Nursery         

Walked the water trail to see the source at the bottom of the mountain.

Witnessed babies from the village getting water to carry home.

All things considered she had a very busy and productive time.

Tina's web site. Check it out.
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Greetings from Mama Arlene in Rwanda for February 2012

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February the traditional month for sharing love, and it has been such a month for Urukundo Foundation.

The month has been filled with outreach ministry to the community, schools and other NGOs.  I also received my share of love when my youngest son, Jerry came to visit and share the work at Urukundo Village.
It was the perfect valentine's gift for me, and my yard is most beautiful because of the work he did.
Notice the heart - my reminder of his visit and his love for all Urukundo kids and me.
Not an easy job but worth the labor.
Tools of the trade, no mulch, just beautiful work well done.

Jerry was a big hit with all the kids, especially the little ones. They ask where is Jorry?
Emmanuel and Agide with Jerry.
Sarah and Jerry.
Claude was Jerry's shadow.  The two 'Mr Fix-Its'! 
Jerry returned to the US February 17th.  Needless to say, the kids were not happy.
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February Love Month

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OUT REACH TO THE COMMUNITY

A Dental Clinic was held, supported by the love of Urukundo Foundation.  Doctor Richard Reckmeyer DDS, MBA of RURAL RWANDA DENTAL from Peoria, Arizona is a long time friend of Urukundo Kids and Mama Brown.  He came to Gitarama armed with tooth brushes and a story to tell about teeth and how good oral health means a healther body. Doctor Rick, along with a trainee, spoke and taught at Urukundo Village and 5 schools in the Muhanga District. We thank the District for working with Urukundo Foundation to make this possible.
First Dr. Rick worshipped with the Urukundo family.
Dental team : Misty, Deb, Doctor Rick & Denis.
Dental technician Deb at worship with the kids.
They then took a tour of Urukundo Village ending on top of the mountain where the boys had a great time fixing Rick's hair.
The top of the mountain.
The hard part for Misty - saying goodbye to Claude.
Love is plentiful at Urukundo Village.
 
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More Outreach

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90 children, both boys and girls, attended a Basketball Clinic/camp at Urukundo Village. The Clinic was held by Rob Thomson.

Rob is an American/Rwandan citizen born in Pennsylvania wearing the #12 Uniform. He is 6 ft 10 tall.

 
First team up for instructions.
Rob Thomson giving some tips.
Coach Ryan Turcott.

Coach Jacque Bahige.

Abis, Rob, Bosco & Claude.