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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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A New and Safer Play Area for our Kids - In Process

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Thanks to RAISED HANDS FOR AFRICA   Our children are watching a play area being developing for them and are making good use of it already. The mound of dirt under the bars is such fun. You can roll down the hill without getting hurt. The mound of dirt will be gone soon. We will have to think about that.
A good place to play hand games.
Exercise is good. Acrobatics are better.
Wheelbarrow with Soso thinking it might be good for a ride!
Claude standing up on top bars.
Watch Soso progress - he starts the climb.
Soso tries a different approach.
Making connection.
Success. Soso swings.  This little guy is amazing.

Play Area Cleared and Leveled

Next step is swings for small and big kids. Benjimin is constructing them as I write. We will use metal pipe, chains and wood. I can't wait to see what develops - it is always rather interesting to see what can be achieved with materials on hand and available.

The little kids do miss the dirt heap under the parallel bars. Guess we need a short one for them.
Leveled and ready.
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Primary School - First Building

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There will be three classrooms, an outside toilet, a water harvest tank & outside paint.  The extra classroom, rain harvest tank and outside paint were not included in the cost of the first building we constructed for the preschool. These costs were added after construction was finished. The cost will be more than the anticipated cost and that pledged by our friends in Canada. We need additional funds to have the school ready by January 2013. Three classrooms is the requirement of the District.

Plan for our school
Dream along with me and the 6 year olds at Cyakabiri Preschool.   The 6 year olds will graduate from Preschool at the end of the next term if the Primary 1 classroom is ready to receive them. I am not sure the classrooms will be ready as we need assistance to get the school classrooms constructed.  The road giving access to the land is finished and the land is leveled and waiting. 

 

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Community Education

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Women in Rwanda want to learn English!

Urukundo Foundation will sponsor them.

  • Women gather for the first meeting to learn more about ESL classes just for them.
  • This proect is co-sponsored by AKILAH INSITUTE FOR WOMEN.
  • The project is for mother with small children who want to learn English but have no funds for classes or funds for babysitters.
  • The class is free with babysitting available for the small children while the mothers are in class.
  • The new playground at the nursery will be a real blessing for these small children and our kids. 'RAISED HANDS FOR AFRICA', a not for profit in North Carolina, is constructing this play area for our children and children in the community.  This may be the introduction to a day care center for working mothers.  This day care center has been in the vision from the beginning but the time has not been right. 
  • We will need to hire day helpers to care for the children of the mamas in the ESL classes and keep them busy.
  • There is no telling where God is leading us.

If you are looking for a project to support this is a very worthwhile. Your support would be a great gift to many!


 

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Greetings from Mama Arlene and the Urukundo Family for June 2012

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June has been an exciting month for me and for Urukundo Village. 
Pink eye hit the secondary schools and two of our kids were home for treatment. Then John Paul dislocated his shoulder playing soccer and also returned home for treatment. Otherwise we are all in good health. 
We have been blessed with volunteers from many countries. They worked in every facet of Urukundo. The young people who came were from 8 different countries. 
Our very first mama has graduated from University. She is the fourth University graduate sponsored by Urukundo. Juliette was the first full time mama when we started our home for girls in Kiibirigi in 2006.  
The Governor of South Province paid us a visit and a delegation from the Provisional Government in the capital, Kigali, came to view the water project. A delegation from the Local Muhanga Government came to carry out the yearly evaluation and finally the Ambassador from the United States paid us a visit. Cramming all that into just four weeks made it a very interesting and busy month. 
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Another Big Event in the Life of Urukundo

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Oswald's vision has been to have a business of his own so that he can support his family. He has been the driver for Urukundo since 2006. He will still take care of our driving needs but he now owns his own minibus. It has happened!
Isn't it a beauty. Congratulations Oswald! THANK YOU to all who helped make this happen. You have truly made a difference for this family.
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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.