Tuesday and Wednesday in Kigali

Our days have been pack so full it was hard to find time to blog. Yesterday we visited Hospital Neuro-Psychiatrique Caraes Ndera. This is the only psychiatric hospital in Rwanda. There are 3 psychiatrists in Rwanda. Two help out at this hospital. I met Dr. Rutakayile Bizoza who is a good natured and friendly man. He had great questions and offered me the opportunity to stay at his home. We did not have as much time to talk as we would have liked. The hospital reminds me of state hospitals from the 50s. They have a very limited capacity with about 130 beds. This is to serve all of the 9 million people in Rwanda. They had requested hospital supplies prior to our visit and Emma Chambers a retired Denver Police officer was able to get all of the supplies through Project C.U.R.E a not for profit group from Colorado. They were very pleased to get the donation. After lunch at a nearby hotel we visited the Village of Hope of the Rwanda Women's Network. This group began in 1995 with the mission of working towards the promotion and improvement of the socio-economic welfare of women in Rwanda, through enhancing their efforts to meet their basic needs. The Village of Hope accomodates survivors of sexyal and gender based violence from the genocide. It provides shelter for the displaced and disinherited women. The women are involved in a variety of projects to make a living including making clothing and weaving baskets called peace baskets. We did buy many items there. I have never been to a place where the people I bought things from were so appreciative and joyful. The women expressed their happiness with our purchases openly. It moved me to tears.
We traveled to Gitarama, south of Kigali to visit the Urukundo Home for Children. Urakundo means love. This place was established by a 77 year old Pennsylvanian woman, Arlene Brown. She is taking care of 39 children who are orphans to genocide or AIDS. Shortly before our visit the police found a 2 month on baby abandoned on the streets. They brought the baby to her. She is buying milk from a neighbor who has a cow. She was unsure whether the neighbor would continue to sell her the milk or not. Our group bought her a cow. We had dinner with her and heard her story of moving from a life of comfort to uncertainty. She is very engaging and enthusiastic about the work she is doing.

Today we visited the Genocide Memorial Center is Gisozi, a suburb of Kigali. It is a site of burial for over 250,000 victims of the genocide. It moved us to tears.

This afternoon we met with the Handicap International group. They have a project to help people with mental illness. We visited a group in the slums of Kigali where a small group of people have created a clinic to serve the health and mental health needs of the people in their community. They truly had very little in terms of medications. They created an internet cafe to earn money to by medications. They are serving the widows of genocide in this slum and their children. They are paying for the education of 130 children. The cost of education is $15 per student per year.

We had a cocktail party with many of the staff of the programs we have been visiting this evening. I met a young man who is the accountant for Veuvaction a program that works with street children in Gisenyi. He himself was living on the streets and eating out of a dump at age 11 after his parents where killed. He was reluctant to trust anyone when he was approached by a swiss woman who offered him help through the program. After a few times he decided to reluctantly give it a try. He recently graduated from the University. They had a graduation party for him and he invited two people. A boy he lived with in the dump and a professor from his University. When he introduced the two to each other the professor could not believe that he lived on the street. He said, " this is my friend from the dump, he is my witness that I lived there."