Author, Speaker, Activist and Artist

Recently someone asked me some good questions about my work in Rwanda. The process of replying to them was helpful to me, and perhaps will be helpful to you. This is rather long but informative…read on!

Specific Questions for Kelly:
What kind of work are you doing?
Are you connected with a group or organization for it?
How did you originally get involved?
What is your favorite Campbell’s soup variety?
Do you go to Rwanda often?
Is Rwanda your sole area of interest?

I hope you had a lovely time at Crater Lake. If you get the chance and wouldn’t mind, I would love to hear whatever you care to share about your experiences.

First to address the easy question: Soup.
Hands down- Campbell’s Alphabet Vegetarian Soup.
I am not a vegetarian but when it comes to Campbell’s- this soup is it!

Second: Crater Lake, Diamond Lake and Ashland were amazing. I feel sheepish to say that in all my years as an Oregonian this was my first Crater Lake visit. I would call it breathtaking. Even my 14-year-old son was deeply moved by the experience.

Now, on to Rwanda:
I’ll begin by responding first to your third Rwanda question.
How did I originally get involved?

In May of 2007 I was invited to participate in a gathering of leaders in Uganda.
The participants were 160 young and innovative African leaders, and 40 lucky leaders from the West (primarily US, UK and Australia). I was in that number. We western attendees came as listeners and learners.
I headed to East Africa early and spent the week before the gathering in Kenya. We met in Uganda for a week and then we westerners split up and went with various African leaders into their cultural contexts. I went to Rwanda.

The Rwandan context:
Our guide in Rwanda was a small man with a huge heart; Steven Turikunkiko.

Steven is Rwandan but was born in Uganda where his Tutsi parents were refugees. When Steven was five years old his parents were murdered (due to political upheaval during the reign of Idi Amin). Just before Steven’s mother was killed she sent Steven into the forest with his two year old and infant siblings and told him to hide. Steven survived but suffered the terrible trauma of not being able to find nourishment for his tiny brother and sister who died in his care. That painful story has marked him for life and given him a drive and determination to help orphans and others who have suffered terrible loss.

Steven trained as a pastor and in 1995 he came to his homeland Rwanda for the first time. This was the year after the genocide- when he was in his early twenties. He was shocked to find small children wandering the streets with no family members to be found. Although he had no income and no support system he could not bear to see the children alone and crying. He began to collect the children and bring them to his temporary shanty home. Together they foraged for food and formed something of a family. At least they had one another.

When Steven first met his wife to be- Providence, he had 14 orphans in his care. This clearly was an unusual man- she fell in love with him and accepted his proposal. Today, more than a decade later, they still have a house full of orphans; at last count, 19. In addition, they now have two young children of their own.

Also in 1995, Steven, in his youthful pastoral zeal, felt drawn to reach out to a rural village called Kabuga- about 40 minutes outside of Kigali; the capital of Rwanda.
He began going door to door in this area introducing himself and proclaiming that he was there to bring the good news of the gospel.
Again he was surprised- this time for several reasons. First of all, in approaching 100 homes he found that not a single one had a male head of household. All the adult men had been killed or had fled the area. Secondly, the women who met him at the gates were not interested in any good news of the gospel. In fact they were not interested in welcoming a pastor of any sort. The heinous truth is that many pastors and priests were actually complicit in the genocide- betraying their own congregations and people who sought shelter in churches. But Steven was determined. Clearly these women were suffering and needed help. He would not give up.
He returned day after day until one by one he won their confidence. His accent (having only recently come from Uganda) helped verify that he was a newcomer to Rwanda and had not been involved in the genocide. His gentle nature, genuine care and sense of humor eventually brought him a warm welcome. Most of the village women were suffering posttraumatic stress syndrome. All had lost family members; husbands, children and parents. Many had been raped by soldiers who often were HIV positive. These women were sealed with what was at that time in East Africa, a warrant for death. Others had lost limbs or received deep flesh wounds. Their society as they had known it no longer existed. They were frightened and isolated with no way to make a living and no support structures. As Steven tells us, many were dying simply because of loneliness and hopelessness.
He asked himself what he could do to make a difference here- what would be good news to this community. “I have nothing but what is it I can do?” he asked himself. His answer “What I can do is bring these together.” He began to plan group gatherings bringing the women together to meet. Slowly this group grew in size and as it did, the spirits of the women were lifted. As the women shared their stories they discovered how much they had in common with their neighbors and how much others had suffered too. As they connected they found a renewed hope for going forward. Essentially this meeting time became a natural group therapy session for PTSD (posttraumatic stress syndrome) and a support group for women living with HIV/AIDS.

As they spent time together and began to resume more normal routines, the women began to dream up practical ways to help each other. Without husbands and older sons their workload increased dramatically. They began to farm together, make baskets together, hand die fabrics together and build a new life together.
Intuitively Steven was instrumental in forming a widow’s collective that saved a whole community of women. This community is still together and numbers 90 plus their 50 children.

At this time Steven was walking nearly four hours a day to reach this rural village in addition to caring for the 14 children under his humble roof. Frequently they all ate only once a day but still he didn’t give up. The Turinkunko’s reputation for caring for orphans became well known in the poor neighborhood they lived in. Women who were dying asked Steven to care for their orphaned children. Babies were abandoned on his doorstep. He continued to meet orphans on the street. But his house had its limits.

To solve the problem of an overflow of orphans Steven began to form a community of orphans in the village of Gasogi (about 30 minutes from Kigali). Younger children remained in his home and older children were formed into family groups of boy’s houses and girl’s houses, with the older children caring for the younger children. Today there are 80 children aged 5-20, in child headed households living together cooperatively in Gasogi. They manage to just get by on sustenance farming and by providing manual labor for other villagers. They rent 9 different mud huts for about 25.00 a month, scattered over a two or three mile radius. Steven visits their homes once a week and shares any extra food or money that comes his way. He helped form the teenaged boys (many of the children he found in 1995 are now teens) into a rural soccer league (futball league), which has become the hub of the orphan community. An elderly neighbor man (a rare find) teaches the traditional dances of Rwanda to the orphans- ancestral history that would otherwise be lost to them. The soccer and dancing are great sources of pride and identity for the orphans.
The orphans have elected their own committee for organization and oversight.

Next question:
Am I connected with a group or an organization?

After meeting Steven in 2007 I returned home and told my husband that I had fallen in love with Africa. I sensed that there was something for me to do there and that he needed to experience what I had so he wasn’t left behind. To that end he (Ken) and our then twelve-year-old son Elliot traveled to East Africa with me 6 months later along with four other friends from the Pacific NW. We were joined by 17 friends from South Africa, gathered by my friend Trevor Bossa, a black pastor from the Soweto Township who had been part of my first learning trip to Rwanda.
After that trip, the circle of friends from around the world (US, UK and SA) began to communicate by email. We could not rest easy knowing that Steven and the 21 children in his home, and the 220 other orphans and widows who looked to him for support and care, often ate only once a day, were only able to sporadically attend school, constantly were in danger of eviction due to rent insecurity and frequently were unable to access proper medical care when needed.

For the past two and a half years about 15 people and small faith communities have been making small monthly contributions which we send in a lump sum to ensure that the Turikunkiko’s don’t have to worry about a roof over their heads and that they can eat at least twice a day. Steven does what he can to stretch the funds to help the 220 orphans and widows…what we send is just a drop in the bucket in the face of the needs in these communities.

This March. the wonderful Lori Martin, one of the women this ad hoc group of friends caring for Steven, decided it was time to take things to the next level. She is launching a 501 c-3 (African Road) to formalize the efforts and building a website so that the stories can be shared easily with others and the circle of care can be extended.

She asked me to join as a volunteer to do strategic planning and development- roles I love when the cause is something I am passionate about. I said YES and we headed to Rwanda to size things up in person. We learned a lot and also came away with lots of great questions to explore and connections to make.

I told the stories from the March trip when I returned home and an anonymous funder made it possible for me to return to Rwanda in July to build on the relationships with strategic partners on the ground and to collect data in order to write a grant proposal upon return.

We have been able to accept donations and provide tax receipts for these communities due to the kindness of Go the Second Mile, friends in Seattle who have a non-profit. I introduced them to Steven a couple of years ago and they were glad to join in.

Organizations:
Our 501 c-3 in process is called African Road. We have a web domain but have yet to build a website.

In the meantime we are posting info on a site one of our good friends in the UK built for the cause. http://www.friendsofsteven.org/

The organization which my friends operate and that provides tax receipts for contributors is called ‘Go the Second Mile”. http://go2ndmile.org/

The friends I first went to Africa with, Claude Nikondeha and Brian McLaren, founders of Amahoro-

http://www.amahoro-africa.org/amahoro_africa/amahoro-africa-gathering.html

Next Question:
Is Rwanda my sole interest?

Absolutely not but it is where our most vital partnership is presently. We are working with clearly defined communities with a strong identity and cooperatives and a long-term commitment to each other, and a good local leader (in Steven Turikunkiko) overseeing them. Because of this we are not dealing with some amorphous population …i.e.: The orphans of Rwanda, or the widows of Rwanda.
We are working with two groups of people; 80 orphans in community in Gasogi Village and 90 widows along with their 50 children in Kabuga. That provides a unique and hopeful opportunity. We truly could be part of helping to move these two distinct communities from extreme poverty to a sustainable way of living. That is exciting to me. This is doable.

I have a young friend who is from the pygmy tribe of Burundi; the Batwa tribe. He is one of only a handful of Twa in the world who have ever attended university. He just completed his law degree and was just elected to Parliament in Burundi. The Batwa are displaced people in their own land, having lived as a primitive forest dwelling civilization until just about 15 years ago when they were forcibly evicted from the forests to create preserves for the endangered Mountain Gorillas. I have traveled to Burundi and have been deeply moved by the spirit and the circumstances of the beautiful Batwa people. I would love to partner with them eventually.

I also have friends in Ethiopia doing incredible work with people who are HIV positive and addressing maternal mortality. It wouldn’t surprise me if we were to partner with them at some point as well.

Our name and mission statement make way for us to work anywhere in Africa as time and resources allow.

Next Question:
What kind of work do I do there?

Key words—
Sustainable. Relational. Culturally congruent.

The work in Rwanda is born out of friendship and relationship and respect for the work of and integrity of the Rwandan leaders we are partnering with.
I’ve done my due diligence and am satisfied that I can assure people who are interested giving to help the poor in Africa, that funds will be well used and that our friends are trustworthy. We have a steady ongoing relationship and systems for accountability to assure that this remains the case.

I am learning from a broad assortment of good people who have long histories of working in third world settings in order to avoid as many pitfalls as possible.

My time in Rwanda has been spent on the ground close to the people in the two cooperatives. I eat in their homes, walk to their water source, shop with them in their markets, ride on their motorbikes and stay in simple lodging. Knowing as much as possible about the actual circumstances of the people I am working with helps a great deal.

The aim is to learn from these friends and while we supervise how funds are used, we do not want impose our ideas of what is best for them.
We are committed to working for sustainable solutions. We are partnering for dignity and long-term self- sufficiency. The best help for Africa is ultimately not in doling out money and clothing but in funding viable micro-enterprise initiatives so these friends can build a future for themselves. We will incorporate use of micro-loans (modeled after KIVA style development) where appropriate.

To date our circle of friends has funded the purchase of 20 sewing machines for the widows, beginning sewing training, crutches for a woman with one leg, emergency medical treatment for orphans, monthly support for Steven’s family, shoes and soccer gear for the orphans. A group of friends raised money for a bead making enterprise for vision-impaired widows in the cooperative. My 8 and 11-year-old nephews just raised 1,500.00 for goats and pigs for the orphans. Friends in Texas raised funds for a motorcycle for Steven to save him the four hours of walking a day or having to pay transit costs.

As we broaden our support base we are determined to partner with these friends in projects that will eventually help them care for themselves. They are motivated and determined and full of hope and capacity. They are an inspiration to me.

My trip in July was focused on fact finding and building healthy partnerships with other organizations on the ground in Rwanda.

I am especially excited about building a mobile medical clinic to serve the widows cooperative and the orphans cooperative. I am working with a Rwandan doctor who has offered his time and skill to help make this possible. I am preparing to launch a campaign to raise funds for medical insurance (less than 3.00 per person per year for 90% coverage) and a pool for co-pays for the two cooperatives. Once that is in place there are so many deferred medical needs to care for. My Rwandan doctor friend will make weekly visits to the rural communities; provide what care he can onsite and then make referrals to specialists when needed. His help is a true godsend. Launching this project is a huge reason I need to return to Rwanda in November.

I am working to develop a long-term partnership between a Rotary club district here in the states and one in Kigali, Rwanda in order to begin the process of seeking funding for larger projects.

We are looking into the viability of a full-scale chicken-farming endeavor. Presently nearly all the eggs and chicken in Rwanda are imported daily from neighboring Uganda.

We are working with a group to implement a goat herd project.

We are seeking to fund the relocation of the widows sewing project along with the purchase of more machines to take them to the level so they can compete in the local market.

We have a long-term goal of purchasing land for these projects. Paying monthly rents for huts, meeting space, transportation does not lend to long-term stability and sustainability.

A very compelling need is funding for school fees for the orphans. We are weighing the pros and cons of a child sponsorship program.

I am leading occasional learning trip to engage potential partners.

Presently I need to raise $4,000.00 to make a return trip to Rwanda in November to knit together projects that I began during my July trip. A great deal of work can be done online but periodic trips to keep momentum going are essential.

Last Question:
How often do I go to Africa?

Right now, about three times a year. I went in March and July and am hoping to return in November for a working trip. I have a tentative trip set in May as well leading a group of students on a learning trip.

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