Dancing with Widows and a major wake-up call…

face-painting at the deaf school!

Where to start…this gets more and more difficult each week! So lots of Mzungu visitors arriving to visit us. I’m starting to feel a bit like a welcoming committee (with one person!), but I don’t mind it’s been great meeting so many new people, especially since Elie’s boys have gone back to boarding school in Rwanda, and Elie and Bernadette are so busy. Last week we had a group from one of FCYF’s main supporters in the UK, Jubilee Action and Think Money. Zoe, the representative from Jubilee Action who was leading the group was great and made sure everyone had a good time. They only stayed for a week, but had a pretty packed schedule. This included visiting all the individual projects, organizing games and activities with the deaf children, meeting with the mentors of the child-headed households program and seeing some of the children’s homes, watching an amazing performance of song and dancing by the CHH and deaf children, dancing with/receiving gifts from the widows of the huge cooperative (884 women!) and attending an intense football/volleyball match between the deaf school and Wisdom! Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed tagging along and joining in with all the activities and entertainment J

Think Money team with the CHH mentors

One of the most fun experiences was dancing with the widows. Other than Elie mentioning it in passing, I had no idea about this huge cooperative of women supported by FCYF. They do not have much funding or resources, but with the help of FCYF, the women who all live in the Kimonyi sector of Musanze have organized themselves into 30 cooperatives that make the most of what they have through activities like farming, handicrafts and livestock. When describing them, Elie was really adamant about the importance of helping these women, as he has seen how much they have been able to do with the little they have and they are supporting thousands of children. Also, it has actually been shown that women will invest everything they have back into the community and their families (as opposed to men, who are more likely to use money and resources for themselves!)

The Kimonyi Widows welcoming dance!

When we finally arrived to meet them, after a very bumpy ride through a mountainous village (off the main road), the welcome of the community was immense! Hundreds of women (as well as some men and all the children of the village!) had gathered to greet us in a large ‘village square’. As we climbed out of the van the traditional Rwandan singing and dancing began. The women dressed in matching, bright and beautiful African fabrics swayed about in an amazing rhythm to the singing and the beat of the drum. We all watched in awe as amazement as we were ushered to a bench at the front of the crowd. At the end of the welcoming performance, the president of the cooperative stood up and gave a speech to welcome and thank the team for their support (which Elie translated.) Then the singing and dancing started again, and before we knew it we were all pulled up by the women and given bright cloths to wear. I felt ridiculous trying move my hips and arms like them, but it was a lot of fun! After the dancing we were all given gifts from the women, a large bag (each!) containing fruits and vegetables that they had grown. We felt a bit bad, knowing that we wouldn’t really be able to make good use of with 20 tomatoes, hundreds of bananas or bitter African plums…but of course it was important to accept their gift! We all left on a high as they continued to dance and sing for us. I really hope they are able to get more support and continue their work as their sense of hope and optimism, despite their difficulties, was so inspiring.

learning to weave baskets with the CHH

Another more saddening/eye-opening experience I had last week with the team was going to visit some of the orphans, supported by the organization’s Child-Headed Household (CHH) program. This is basically a psychosocial support and vocational training program, for children who as a result of the genocide or HIV/other diseases have lost their parents and are struggling to support several younger siblings/older dependents) within their households. The program enables the children to choose adult “mentors” within the community (from pre-selected trusted and respected members of the community) to give them advise, visit them and essentially provide the love and care of a parent. The program has been running for several years now and from what I have seen the children are really happy, enthusiastic about their work (they all now proficient in handicrafts, wood-carving or knitting) and have really formed a community amongst themselves. This is a very different picture from what Elie and Jacqueline the social worker, described from when the children (the most vulnerable in the community), were first selected. Jacqueline said that many of the children (understandably) were so traumatized they would not even speak about their experiences. They saw no hope for the future. What the program has done for them is great, but seeing their homes was a wake-up call and reminder that they still need a lot more support and their a situations are still far from ideal. The most shocking was the first home we visited, which was literally just two large sheets of corrugated iron attached together as a shelter from the rain. Inside they had little more than a thin dirty double mattress (shared by the boy and his younger brother), and a pan and a bowl tied to the ceiling! The boys seemed quite happy to show the large group (gathered around with umbrellas and cameras) their home. I didn’t really know what to think. In my mind, it was unimaginable that anyone should have to live like this, but there it was right in front of me.  I told myself that at least they were receiving some help from the community, their mentors and learning vocational skills so that they can maybe make some money in the future to improve their situation…but how many other orphans are living like this, or in even worse conditions and receiving no help?

A CHH orphan's home

I think it is impossible to come away from seeing something like this and not want to do something to help. The visitors I was with were visibly affected by their experience…and so was I, though in my current position I feel quite powerless to help these children directly. I can only hope that the more people that come to visit and see with their own eyes the conditions that so many orphans face, the more people will be inspired to help and things will actually begin to change…