God in Charge, Sends Us a New Challenge

A new child has come into our lives. Her name is Claudine. In my arms and in my heart I carry this little girl.

Mama Arlene and Claudine

Claudine is two years old and appears to be 4 months old in development. She may weigh 15 lbs. This precious child suffers from starvation, scabies, God only knows what else, and is blind. She has cataracts over both eyes. She is an abandoned child needing what we have to give.

Doctor Petre an ophthalmologist from Sweden working at Kabgayi Hospital, a volunteer from his country, called and asked us to help.

He will do surgery on the eyes but in her condition now she would not survive anesthesia. His question was “will you take her for at least 3 months and see if you can restore her to health. He also said, “She will have vision after the surgery”. Praise God.

We could not say no and so she is now part of the family.

She will have special needs and special foods and a mama to care for her.  Do we need help?  Yes we do.  We especially need your thoughts and prayers.

We have sent her to the general hospital with Dr. Petre for tests to be sure she has no infectious diseases that we can not treat and if tests prove we can care for her she will come home in a few days to much “LOVE” at Urukundo Home for Children. The children did not want us to take her away even for a little while. We know she will come home soon. God willing. Please pray for this 2 year old infant.

The New Kitchen

There is still some finishing touches but we are cooking and preparing food in a much bigger and better Kitchen.

The built in stove can handle 6 different sized pots and the sink has two large areas to wash even the largest pan. Hot water is a real plus.

We thank everyone who helped us build a kitchen to cook for our kids and staff.

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News from the Guest House

Thanks to a new water line with bigger pipes we now have a good source of water for the residence at the guest house. This gift came from friends in Canada. We are grateful. Nothing is worse than getting all set for a shower, warm or cold then step into the stall and discover no water. The water is working fine now.

Surprise Package for Belise

Belise had her seventh birthday. Seems like such a short time ago she came as our first under seven child.

Belise enjoying her surprise.

Natete, Esperance and Belise all had a March birthday.

Thanks to sponsors we had a cake with a big candle and fruit juice for all.  Can’t find little candles here.

Aline and the boys getting into the picture.

Visitors for March, 2009

Our visitors this month came from Canada, USA, England,  and Germany.  I forgot my camera worked even though the computer did not, so I did not take pictures.

Sarah Ketchly from Seattle and her son Tom Wilson from the UK and US arrived with shoes from their daughter's brownie troup in Seattle and soccor shirts and shoes and were the hit of the month.

During the time of the flu invasion, we were blessed with two first aid people from Canada, Brittney Merryweather and Kathleen Fleming, and an RN from Colorado, Karen Klein.

Laki, How He Has Grown

Here is Laki from 4 months ago.



And here he is today. An amazing improvement, thanks to your support.

News from School

On April 2nd, our secondary school kids come home for a 3 week stay. It will be wonderful to have all 39 (Claudine makes #39) kids at home again. We will try to get a group picture for next month's newsletter.

Our Update for February, 2009

Greetings from Mama Arlene and Urukundo Kids for February, 2009!

I'm running a bit behind this month, but I'll blame that on February only having 28 days.  Next month, I will get the newsletter out on time (since March has 31 days.)

Last month I promised an update to what you have made possible at Urukundo Home for Children in 2008.  We have so much to be thankful for as our hard work is making a difference in the lives of so many.

2008 has been a blessed year and I thank you all for your support in this sometimes hard, but ultimately rewarding work.

A Note for New Readers

Urukundo Village is an independent home for Rwandan children created and funded through Hope Made Real and its incredibly kind donors.  We are not funded by any particular denomination or organization and welcome all who seek to help the children of Rwanda and create a better world not just for a child, but for us all.

Hope Made Real Vs. the Flu

Wonderful news for everyone: David has recovered from the pneumonia and bronchitis and is full of energy again.

The flu has made its presence known. All the children have been ill this month except for Luki, and he has had the sniffles, so that really does not count I suppose.  Our staff has also been down because of illness.  We had a bad scare when one of our staff tested positive for Malaria and Typhoid.  The test proved to be defective and we breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God.

How the Weather Kept New Photos Out of This Month's Update

You may notice there aren't as many photos this month as there usually are.  It all has to do with the weather, which is still unpredictable.

We have just passed through what is traditionally three dry months in Rwanda, but with rain storms every day. Our storms have been very violent, with high winds and much rain, but we are finding every leak in the homes and that is a plus. However moping up the water is a lot of work. Fixing the roofs, windows and doors to keep out the water has been a challenge.

The worst results of the weather happened to me or at least it was the worst for me.

The window over my desk in my bedroom office was not latched securely and at the height of the storm blew open, drenching my bed and the entire room which, sadly, included my desk. My macbook sat open on that desk. Water destroys computers and it certainly destroyed mine. The entire computer, monitor and key board were drenched.

Gradually, the water evaporated from the monitor. It was interesting to watch and it took 3 weeks to do so. There are about 4 spots still visible but inside the keyboard nothing has changed as it does not function, So the computer has to be replaced. Fortunately my hard drive was backed up, but I can’t get to the data just yet.

I am so grateful for the used PC I brought back from my visit in January 2008 and that is what I am using now to do the newsletter.

A Look at What We Accomplished in 2008

An amazing amount was accomplished in 2008.

With your help, Urukundo has acquired the necessary land to construct a home for the boys, a home for the girls, a larger and better kitchen, bought some equipment for our small clinic, purchased 500 layers for egg production, built a house to raise chickens for income, cleared land for a soccer field, and built a very nice guesthouse for teams and individuals who want to come and work with us.

We started on the path to being more self-sustainable by building the chicken farm for eggs. It is not yet paying for itself, but it will soon. We now have a guaranteed market that will buy all our eggs and broilers when we have them. La Galette Bakery and German Butchery is doing this to help our kids. This is a real plus. We have completed a house for broilers to produce more income. We have also acquired a milk cow and two calves. The land we purchased is being farmed to supplement our food needs.

We also made sure the roofs of our children's homes capture the rainwater for our day to day use.

An Update on Our Goals for 2009

Our goal for 2009 is to complete the finishing touches to all present construction and projects and to have one new very important building project: a place for education.

• Finish all cement work and painting on the inside and outside of the both homes.


• Paint baseboard and out side of new larger Kitchen. (The original kitchen was too small to cook for the number of people we feed daily.


• General repair to beds and new mattresses in boys home.


• Build outside toilet for dry weather when flush toilets cannot be used.


• Terrace land to prevent erosion until we build a school and Clinic in 2010.


• Electricity for the farm buildings


• Purchase day old broilers each month for a steady income. These broilers are sold at 3 months of age. The day old chicks cost 500 rwf (about 60 cents each) and are sold for profit after 3 months by weight.


• Renovate the existing old kitchen and move the clinic from the boys home into it, giving us more room in the boy’s house for sleeping space.


• Build closets in both homes for better control of clothes.


• Our Education campaign will continue in November and December 2009. (very successful in 2008). 329 benefited from your generous gifts. Thank You.

New Construction

Our construction project for the year 2009 is an all purpose building that was started by Tom Wilson from Seattle and the UK and Ed Keller and Sandra Walker from Bloomsburg, Pa in January. This will be our first attempt at a two story building.

This building will have many purposes. The first floor will house our place of worship (Chapel) Sunday morning. It will be used for a class room for English for the community in the evenings and a kindergarten during the morning.

The second floor will have two rooms and one will be used as a Library, craft room and the second a Computer Learning Center.

The clothing and feeding of our wonderful children is something we have been incredibly successful at and it is now time to step it up and prepare them for a future where they can learn and grow into the educated, compassionate adults we know they can be.