I am so excited to be partnering with Africa New Life, an organization devoted to breaking the cycle of poverty in Rwanda by providing education, spiritual insight and basic necessities to poor children and families, to bring all of you the opportunity to help out a child living halfway across the world.
It is estimated that 7,000 children live on the streets of Kigali, Rwanda (smack dab in the middle of Africa). These children (mostly boys) go to the streets looking for food and for a better life. About 40 percent of these children have homes and families, but are forced outside of the home for in search of food.
Twice a week, Africa New Life hosts a ministry for street children at the Dream Center in Kigali. More than 300 street children flock to the Dream Center on Mondays and Thursdays for warm meals, water to wash themselves and their clothes, and to receive physical and spiritual care.
Street Children of Rwanda from Africa New Life Ministries on Vimeo.
Africa New Life serves three types of street children:
1. Young children who have homes, but are forced to the street to beg. When these children attend the street children ministry consistently and show a desire to return to school, the staff in Rwanda enters them into the sponsorship program.
2. Orphaned boys, or those who don’t have homes. Africa New Life is opening the Umucyo (Light) Home, which will house 48 of these boys once completed. They will no longer sleep on the streets of Kigali, but through sponsorship will have the opportunity to return to school.
3. Street children who are too old to return to school. Africa New Life offers a two-year vocational training program in carpentry and metal-smithing for 50 older street boys. These boys learn a marketable skill and are able to pull themselves off of the streets.
Africa New Life is doing amazing things with these children and I would love to have each of you consider spending $15.52 a month for the next three months so another child can participate in this program. And it’s really more than feeding them. It’s giving a child hope and the knowledge that someone that they will never meet cares about them.
Africa New Life’s United States headquarters is in the Portland Metro area and I have on several occasions met with members of the staff. My husband and I also attended Multnomah Seminary with the founder of Africa New Life, Charles Mugisha Buregeya in the early 2000′s. These are amazing people, working diligently and sacrificially to serve those living in the devastating aftermath of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 (if you haven’t seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, you really should You will be forever changed.).
Over the next three months, I will be sharing more about Africa New Life, stories from children participating in this program and how we can be apart of it. I simply cannot wait to see what type of impact we, a group of men and women in search of living a frugal life in the Pacific Northwest, can have on children living in a desperate situation halfway across the globe.
Frugal Living NW has committed to match the support of the first 100 monthly donations, so your donation will actually provide for two children for one month.
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YES! I LOVE Africa New Life. Just heard from Fred Katagwa, ANL’s president, this past weekend. What a wonderful organization and so thrilled to see it on FLNW. Thanks, Angela!
Sounds like a wonderful, truly helpful focus!
Thank you so much for posting this. I signed up to do this. I lived in Kigali for a year and it is so dear to my heart.
Not sure how I missed this post earlier…What a fantastic post and program Angela. I will talk to my husband about getting involved. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks! I’ve posted to my “fewer gifts, more giving” page on FB, hopefully more will come in! Are you near the 100 yet?
This sounds interesting! I’ll toss it around with my family:)