Baby Love

This morning we were met by Valerie, Archbishop's wife and head of Mothers Union in Kigeme Diocese, we were off to meet a group of single mothers being supported and mentored by M.U.

Arriving back in Karambi Parish (we were at the Health Centre there yesterday) we found Rev. Innocent waiting for us again, this is his parish after all.

These young girls are often shunned by their families and communities and find themselves isolated and struggling to survive. Bringing them together helps them find friendship and support, teaching them God’s word gives them hope, and acceptance by the church is often the first step to reconciling them with their families.

Four M.U. ladies act as ‘mothers’ each supporting and mentoring 30 girls. Each group meets weekly, then once a month they all come together. Today, just a representative group of those who lived locally had been asked to come and meet with us.

This group of beautiful young ladies greeted us enthusiastically.

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Many had young babies with them. They spoke confidently and gave testimonies of the difference being supported in this way had made in their lives, restoring hope and building confidence. Some told how they had been forced to drop out before completing school and would like the opportunity to finish their education, others wished to learn tailoring or hairdressing as a means of supporting themselves and their child.

It was clear that by meeting together they were supporting and lifting each other up, and it was wonderful to see them gather for a photo with heads held high, laughing and proud to belong to the group.

Of course, we caused one or two of the babies to cry, but one at least was not so scared of the muzungu.

Back at the Diocesan Office a stroll around the grounds saw Pauline (who does love a ladder) attempt a climb, fortunately one foot on the bottom rung was as much as she could manage.

Once again we broached the subject of making reusable hygiene products for girls with Valerie and Jane (MU representative), they were interested but struggled to visualise what we were trying to explain.  How could we show them? We had met Shadrack, a young man who teaches tailoring, so off we marched through the paths and down the road to his shop. There we gathered material scraps from the floor, cut shapes and requested one of the ladies to sew it for us, hey presto a very small and scrappy reusable sanitary pad and a very happy MU team who now understood the concept. Please pray we can get this project off the ground.

Back at the Diocesan Office we met with Archdeacon Ernest who told us about his work with the elderly. Having noticed how so many young people had moved to the towns, leaving the elderly lonely and isolated without family around them and no means to support themselves, he set up a programme encouraging them to attend the church on a Thursday for a service tailored for them, then enjoy a time of fellowship and, when funds allowed they would be supplied with soap, body oil and flour for porridge, occasionally a fruit tree sapling would be provided, something for them to take care of and look forward to fruiting, a purpose to keep going. He told us how one package costs around £5 so it was not possible to provide very often. Would anyone be interested in sponsoring a granny/grandad we wondered?

There is just so much going on in this diocese, and they have the wonderful asset of significant areas of land that can be used for income generation. No big fancy buildings here, their available funds are definitely used for the benefit of the communities and we pray we will be able to support them further.

A short debrief with the Bishop before a delicious lunch with all the team at the home of Bishop Assiel and Valerie. Then it was time to set of on the half hour drive to Butare Diocese, our home for the next few days.

We had not met Bishop Christophe before as he has only been in post for about a year. After a short meeting he asked if we would be happy to visit Gisanza Parish this afternoon as an unexpected diocesan meeting tomorrow means he will not be available to spend time with us. So it was back in the car for the relatively short journey to Gisanze.

The church we had assisted with completing is, remarkably, still open, however, it is never going to meet the government standards, and as it is now at capacity with 120 adults and 130 kids they are building a new church. The existing building will eventually become a community space.

The nursery is in use with 168 children in three classrooms, the structure is sound but it needs suitably sized tables and chairs and a coat of paint. We were surprised to learn that despite being a church nursery the government pay the teachers and the children do not have to contribute any fees. They receive porridge daily and an egg three times a week provided by the diocese, this is due to the abject poverty of the area. The land is poor and growing crops is a real challenge.

We heard how grateful Rev Phinius is for his motorcycle which enables him to visit the homes in his parish more often, he told us when he arrived in the parish they had just 31 Christians. Travelling around the parish and meeting people in their homes has grown his congregation to 250 and filled the exiting church to capacity. He is also grateful that he can now attend meetings at the diocesan office without a long and time consuming walk.

We met with some of the recipients of the goats provided in 2023. There have obviously been some challenges in providing sufficient grazing for the goats, and reproduction has been slow, but those we met gave thanks for the manure which is helping to grow their crops, and told how the goats are now reproducing and being passed on to their neighbours.

Heading off the murram road before dark we were taken to the bishop’s house where we were delighted to meet his wife Goreth and his three youngest children, Jessie 8, Alvin 4 and Abbie 5.5 months, we were made very welcome and the children were delightful. More cuddles were had over snacks of fruit and ground nuts and discussions about the challenges in the diocese and the work of CHI.

Too late to fancy dinner, hot chocolate and biscuits sufficed whilst we wrote the blogs. We never travel without the essentials!!!!