Sewing Center expanding

This existing building is being renovated to become an active structure at the Tom Nunnally Sewing Center. As more students are enrolled at the sewing school, more space and more machines are needed. One machine costs US$160.

The existing building had been empty, waiting for a need to become apparent. It is part of the Sewing Center complex.

The work to enlarge the sewing center started Nov. 1 with the door being changed.

This is the progress as of Nov 9. New door and window added.

Moving sand and stones used in the construction is done with wheelbarrows and muscle. Outside, the space needs to be secured with a retaining wall and fences for safety.

Inside demolition

New walls, windows, and ceiling.  Painting in process.

This photo is from Nov. 20. What a difference 20 days make!

Finished classroom. Blackboard included. Now for machines and students.

Gift of love

The daycare play area worried our visitor Barbara Campbell, who visited from New Jersey, USA, in September and October. On her return to the USA, she decided to do something about it. The following photos will give testament to what her dream for the children became. Another Hope Made Real.

Change in progress

Using a pick and shovel to remove stones is temporary labor for a permanent improvement.

Making progress

The fence, shown before painting, is designed to protect daycare kids.

Paint does make a difference. Later each section will be a different color to match the benches and equipment.

From this, without the fence, to this, with the fence.

A special thank you to Barbara Campbell. Your gift was so needed and appreciated.

Message from Mama

The parents in our community are not happy that their children at age 12 are separated from their mothers, dads, and siblings when they leave home to live in a boarding school. Secondary schools are boarding schools in most of the country. There also are many children whose education ends at Primary 6 because of the poverty level in their home.

Education should not stop at the 6th grade. Education is important, but in those years from 12 to 15, more important are the love and nurturing of family. A 12-year-old needs to be taught family togetherness and values. These values are not taught in secondary (7, 8, 9 grades) school. Parental supervision is essential in these formative years.

Other primary schools in Rwanda are adding the three grade levels to their educational programs. It has been Urukundo’s plan for many years to open an O-level secondary school (junior high). Of course, first we have to build it. I hope there are many of you willing to help us do that. Thanks to Phelps Chapel United Methodist Church in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, USA, and others, we have a starting fund of US$17,000.The total amount needed is US$150,000  This is the estimated cost of the six classrooms at US$25,000 per room It will be a two-story building, with three classrooms upstairs and three downstairs. There will be two windows per room.

It is our hope and prayer that we will have completed the construction before the 2025-26 school year.  This will not happen without your help.

During this season of giving, please consider adding Urukundo/Hope Made Real to your Christmas gift list. Send that gift to:

Hope Made Real, PO Box 3222, Williamsport, PA 17701 (USA)

Give a small amount or a large amount. Every bit helps.

Much Love,

Mama Arlene

October Newsletter

October is the celebration of Halloween in my home state, Pennsylvania, USA.

Beautiful foliage and roadside decorations of the season!

I miss the colors of fall, but I do not miss the scary decorations.

This does not happen at Urukundo. We have been busy just being and looking to the future.

School expansion plans

I am so pleased to share with you a new photo of the Urukundo Learning Center and the top of the mountain where we hope to construct classrooms for Grades 7, 8, and 9 in 2025. This photo was taken in September 2024.

Top level: Preschool, kindergarten, school offices, and the library.

Middle level: Primary 1 through 6.

Bottom Level: Primary 5 and 6.

Red roof: Music classes and teacher resource rooms.

My “hope made real” is to build a secondary O Level school (equivalent to grades 7, 8, and 9 in junior high) on the next level of the mountain, above the current buildings.

This construction has been in our five-year plan since 2021. On my visit to the USA in 2021, Phelps Chapel United Methodist Church in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, shared our hope and started a building fund with a donation of $5,000. Here it is almost 2025 and time to move forward. Picture, if you will, a secondary school building something like this design on the next level of the mountain.

New retaining wall

Living on a mountain is a challenge. Nature tries to claim its territory, so we level the land and then build retaining walls to hold back the mountain. After completing a classroom, we need to protect our children and the classroom. One heavy storm can move the mountain into the classroom. The retaining wall must be in place before the next storm comes.

It requires moving a lot of mountain and then

setting the perimeters with a blue string. Can you see it?

More moving dirt. Then stones arrive as well as bags of cement.

Lots of huge rocks chiseled into shape by hand are placed to create a beautiful retaining wall. This is all done with manual labor. Hard work.

Finally, a beautiful wall is created. Nothing comes easy. Hard work and dedication are essential.

Village experiences

Tourism options offered to Urukundo volunteers include the opportunity to visit a village in Muhanga near Urukundo village, meet our neighbors, and experience village life.

Juliette and her family invited our volunteers to visit their village to experience village life.

Volunteers Cassi, Ruby, Barb and driver Eric were welcomed in Juliette’s home by Julliette, her three children, and two neighborhood kids.

Arriving from the USA in September and leaving in October, Cassi, Ruby and Barb are featured as volunteers in both newsletters. Ruby is from Maine, her sister Cassi is from Pennsylvania and their cousin Barb is from New Jersey.

Some of what is ordinary village life became real for them.

Neighbors prepared to carry water. Jerrycans full of water weigh about 40 pounds and are carried on the head.

Here are cassava plants in a small field. Farming is a way of life in small villages.

Bananas are grown locally for local use.

These bricks were vulnerable to wind and rain and often collapsed. 

In earlier times in Rwanda, mud bricks were the only available material for building homes. Construction has improved. New homes now use better baked brick. Doors and windows have also improved.

Back home at Urukundo

Kitchen help is always an option.

Ruby learns to peel potatoes, Rwandan style. The kitchen helper laughed a bit but appreciated her assistance.

Volunteers Barb, Cassi and Ruby got a lesson on how Rwandan mamas carry their babies, leaving their hands free to do work. The wrap is unique. Dolls work for teaching.

Epiphanie, Barb, and Ruby.               

Our volunteers picked material and a style of dress, and Epiphanie, head of the Tom Nunnally Sewing Center, turned it into a “hope made real.” Aprons, long jackets, table runners, tablecloths, and bags were also taken home with them. The Sewing Center is versatile.

Safe travels to Ruby, Cassi and Barb!