Our Visitors in December, 2008

A delegation from People to People A delegation from People to People

We were visited by a delegation out of Canada from People to People on December 1st, getting our month off to a great start.

Adrian Shultz Adrian Shultz

A world biker from Germany stopped and spent three days at Urukundo before continuing his journey South. Adrian started his world trip 8 months ago in his home land Germany and will continue on into North America, Mexico, on to Australia and heading home. I am not sure how all that works. His bike is his transportation. Our boys were very impressed.

Nox Ntuli Nox Ntuli

Noxi is a young lawyer from South Africa. She came to work at Urukundo over her Christmas break from her office. We were so grateful for her help while she was with us.

A Christmas Pageant

To celebrate Christmas, the kids put on a Christmas Pageant. It was great fun as the kids had to do the whole thing with as little adult help as possible. They did an amazing job. It was enjoyed by all.

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I shared with the children the tradition of giving a gift to someone you love and the fun of the tree. Explaining that the tree is part of our culture. They had fun decorating the tree and each receiving a package from mom. The white bags are back packs and flip flops part of school supplies.

Scholarship Fund Reaches 127 (only 173 more to our goal)

This project is a perfect example of how so little can go incredibly far in Rwanda.

A $15 donation covers one child for an entire year including: school fees, a uniform, shoes, a backpack, pencils, and notebooks.  All of this is purchased for only $15.  (and note that Hope Made Real, as a volunteer organization, passes on 100% of the donation.)

Our goal was to send 300 children to school for 2009 and I'm proud to say we've so far raised scholarships for 127 children!

Our Goal for 2009: 300

Scholarships given in 2008: 240

Number of gifts to date: 127

Scholarships not yet funded: 173

To help you see the amazing impact you are having, we thought we would share with you the faces and names of 75 of the children who will have the benefit of an education in 2009.

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Your gift can make a difference in the lives of these children and more. Send your gift, online donation or mail to:

/donate/

Hope Made Real
Dr. Patricia Brown Tres.
301 Overdale Road
Pittsburgh Pa. 15221

Our 40th Child Joins Urukundo Village

On November 18th, we were blessed with a new baby boy. He arrived to us with no last name, no birth date, no history.  He is an abandoned baby.     

His name is Laki (pronounced Lucky). He is a real cutie.  We think he is about 1 year, 8 months old. (We are judging this by his teeth development.)  He is a dear little boy but needs a lot of love and care and special feeding as malnutrition has done some damage.  The strange hair and puffy face are signs of malnutrition.  Check back next month for a picture that should hopefully see a great improvement.  David, our first abandoned baby, now has a playmate, and Laki now has a family.

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We are expecting an abandoned two-month-old girl next week.  After that, we will be able to accept one more baby, boy or girl.  We must limit the babies we can help to four until we know we have the resources to care for more.  Please donate if you can.  Your prayers and hopes are appreciated.

The Girls Have Moved into Their New Home

The outside work on the girl's home has yet to be done.Construction on the inside of the girls home is now complete. We finally have glass in the windows and the girls have moved in.  Blankets to cover the windows will work until we get material to make curtains. The windows keep out the mosquitos and the blankets at night give them privacy.

It is beginning to look nice as you can see in the picture, although there is still much work to do on the outside of the building.

It is so wonderful to have a real home for the girls and we thank you all for your support as we create a stable and solid home for our children.

Laundry Day (and a look at how we use our water efficiently)

At Urukundo Village, where the children in our direct care live, we wanted to give you a look not only at Laundry Day in the back yard, but also how we make the most of our resources.  This tank gathers the rainwater from the roof so that every drop we capture gets put to good use and helps us to further make ourselves self-sustainable.


Laundry day in the backyard. Laundry day in the backyard.

Turkeys Join Our Farm

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We purchased three turkeys to help fatten up our Christmas dinner.

Now for the problem: the white one was so pretty we decided we would find her a mate and not eat her for Christmas. Then the black ones started laying eggs.  Now, no one wants to eat them for dinner.  For now, we are collecting the eggs to set a hen and raise chicks.
Back home in the United States, simply picking up a frozen turkey at the supermarket made life much simpler.  You don't get to know them on a first-name basis.  But since we have no supermarket, live birds are our only resource.


It will be interesting to see who survives Christmas dinner.