Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we traveled to five different villages in Rwanda where we have several ABC Kids. A little more than 70 of the 289 ABC Kids were visited and given the gifts from their sponsors. They were so excited to receive these gifts, as for many, receiving gifts is a rarity. At first they were shy and hesitant to even open the gifts as we watched, but once they were out of the spotlight, they anxiously inspected their new treasures and passed them around for all the other children to see. The remaining 200+ children are scheduled to be seen this Saturday at Pastor Francis’ church in Kimironko.

Click on the following links to see pictures from each day:

Tuesday: Busanza

Wednesday: Ruhuha

Thursday: Ryandizi, Ruhengeri, and Rusenge

1. Education support

Children are back in school for Term 3: The new school term started on August 10^th. All the children were ready and almost all of them started school on the first day. Most of those who attend boarding schools left on Sunday August 9^th.  The staff was ready enough to enable the children with everything they needed to start school.

2. Sponsorship

• Children’s letters/reports mailed: When the children’s letters and reports got ready, we had them mailed to CCLH. The children were so glad to be able to write to their sponsors during this period. Some of the children who wrote their first English letters are wondering if the sponsors will be able to understand when they said in the letters; we will  be available to work with the children and explain the letters incase the sponsors don’t understand some of the parts. Reports and letters for the newly sponsored children are also being prepared.

Sponsored children’s moms on genocide charges: When Uwimanimpaye Naziya’s father died in prison from where he was serving a genocide sentence, nobody expected the mother to also be in prison on the same charges. After about six months after the father’s death, the mother was also picked up this month and taken to prison to serve a genocide sentence. According to the area pastor, this lady is in prison because she cannot pay about 150,000FRW that Naziya’s father couldn’t pay to compensate for the property that he destroyed during the Tutsi genocide of 1994. Also, the mother for Nshimyumuremhy Eric and Fred Niyonzima is in prison to serve a three month sentence for giving false evidence against a genocide suspect.

3. Children’s health: Two of the sponsored children are admitted at hospital.    The doctors at Kibagabaga hospital are treating Niyonnshuti Eric for a strange illness that he developed during the last weekend. Semahoro Kado was also brought back from school the last week of August after he got infected with malaria. Kado has greatly improved but we are still praying for Eric to get better as well. He has been put on blood transfusion and other treatment for all this time but there has not been any considerable improvement up to this time.

Children’s food: We gave out food to the children who are infected with HIV.

Helen bought and distributed the food. The food give away to these children continues to be of great help to them. Their parents/guardians are now finding it easier to look after them now that they have the food to supplement and are able to feed them all through.

3. Prayer requests for September 2009:

• Pray for the sick children
• Continue to pray for children who are not sponsored yet so that sponsors for them can be found

4. Plan for September 2009

• Pay all the fees and visit the children at the schools they attend
• Send reports and letters for the newly sponsored children
• Work with Karalyn to visit and take pictures of all sponsored children.

Captions to Photos:

We held a one day meeting with all the secondary school going children and all staff. We discussed their spiritual growth, their performance in school, their roles at the church when in school and during school holidays. The children were further reminded that even though they are still in school, their contribution in church is still needed. The meeting was led by pastor Francis.

Mary gave out money for their transport and the bank slips for those whose fees had already been paid to their schools’ bank accounts; Helen and other CDWs gave out the scholastic materials. Mary has also paid fees for some of the children who attend primary schools.

Kado has improved while Eric is still weak. Simon and Helen used our church van to quickly rush him to Kibagabaga hospital from a nearby health center.

Since the children are in school, it required a lot of traveling across Rwanda to visit some of them. Many are away at boarding schools so they were very excited to have visitors come to their schools. The majority of the children live in or near Kimironko, the community where CGF Church is located and the headquarters for ABC Rwanda.

Most of the sponsors sent letters, pictures, and small gifts, which were all hand-delivered to the children as we visited each of them. The children were very excited to receive the letters and gifts from their sponsors.

Overall, the children are doing very well. A few currently have Malaria but are receiving treatment for it. One of the children recently found out he was HIV+ and he had a very difficult time dealing with this news. We were able to see him the day after he was released from the hospital, but he was not doing very well.

Prayers are needed for all of the children in the program, especially those infected with HIV. These children are now receiving extra food from the ABC program since it was discovered that food along with the medication play a crucial part in the health of the infected children.

There are currently 81 children on the waiting list to be sponsored. If you are interested in sponsoring a child or would like to know more about this program that is not on the website (www.abcrwanda.org) , please send us an email at abc@calvarylahabra.org and we will gladly answer any of your questions. To see the children who need sponsors, click here.

1370 S. Euclid Street

La Habra, CA 90631

abc@calvarylahabra.org

Phone: 714-446-6222

Fax: 714-446-0714

Mission and History of Abana B’umwami Children’s Foundation

Abana B’umwami Foundation started in 2002 in Kigali, Rwanda. Members of Christ Gospel Fellowship Church of Rwanda came together to help provide tuition and school supplies to the needy children in their community. Under the direction of Pastor Francis Mutabazi, the program initially supported 40 children, either orphaned or living in extreme poverty.

A small team of missionaries from Calvary Chapel La Habra (CCLH) ventured to Rwanda in 2005 and had the opportunity to meet most of these children and many more in need of support. At the same time, Pastor Francis and his community were praying for an answer, as they were struggling to meet the needs of the children already in the program.

The team from CCLH came back with a burden to participate in this foundation. Within months of coordinating with Pastor Francis and presenting the needs to the body at CCLH, the Abana B’umwami foundation was not only able to continue to support the 40 original children, but it has now found sponsors for over 200 children just four years later.

With over 1 million orphans and over 101,000 child-headed households in Rwanda, there is a continual need that you can help meet.

Click here to sponsor a child.