by Dr Callum Henderson
“I thank the Lord for having inspired people of good hearts to help us.”
The impact of the Central Hospital of Rusayu (CHR) continues to amaze us. We are so happy to see that the work the hospital staff are doing is leading to hope rising up in the lives of those being treated at the hospital.
Ndabugi Gloire
Ndabugi Gloire (name changed to protect identity) is 59 years old and looks after seven children. Like many women during Covid-19 her income has dried up and she has been forced to go out to the forests to find wood and charcoal to sell and help her, as she says, ‘survive with my family.’
We’ll let her tell her own story:
‘When I went to the forest I met some unknown men and they raped me. I was ashamed to return home but I was obliged to because of my children. When I reached home, none of my neighbours approached me, and even my husband would not take care of me. Instead, he ran away from me.’
For Gloire, the presence of the Central Hospital Rusayu (CHR) proved a lifeline, not just physically but also emotionally and mentally. When Gloire went to the hospital the staff, she says,
‘made me feel comforted because when I arrived at the CHR nurses and doctors took care of me in the way of treatment and counselling.’
Staff and Supporters
We are so privileged to be working with such a great team of staff at the hospital who are taking care of these women. We were also blessed to receive funding from Elim Pentecostal Churches for the hospital to provide food and clothes for the rape survivors. As always, the gifts from supporters and partners is key to the hospital being able to provide such care. Gloire says,
‘I thank those people of good heart of Comfort International for the help of clothes and food, I was very happy because when I was raped, my clothes were torn by those rapists. It gave me joy when I discovered that there are people who love and think about me. I pray for God to bless them so that they may continue to help us because we are still in a very hard period of the Covid-19 pandemic. There are others who have suffered similar problems of violence and they need help too.’
For Gloire, the rape has certainly deeply traumatised and damaged her life. She faces the ongoing issues typical of raped women, trying to get a living for herself and her children without the support of her husband or family. Her home is built of grass and leaks in the rain. But she has received help, physically, psychologically and spiritually and found hope and love in the midst of tragedy. At her most extreme pain and need, the team at the hospital were there to help.
Living Conditions
Many of those being helped by the hospital are living in desperate conditions and would be completely unable to access health care if they needed to pay for it.
Dative
Dative lives with five children and has lost one of her arms. Her home is a mixture of materials obtained from her surroundings and from the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) – sticks, stones and bits of torn canvas. However, there is less activity of the UNHCR now and Dative says,
‘After the UN Refugee Agency stopped their activities I was asking why we were living in suffering without anywhere to go for help. But my neighbours told me that at the Central Hospital Rusayu they are healing patients in my situation without paying money. In the hospital, my children also received the medicines they needed and they have recovered as well.’
We are so grateful for our supporters who make this possible. It is people like you who have been supporting CHR that are making this hope a reality. As Dative says,
‘I thank the Lord for having inspired people of good hearts to help us with the hospital and a team of doctors and nurses who heal us by the power of God.‘
Prayer
Continue to pray, not only for the hospital but for the displaced people and the pygmies who live in shockingly difficult conditions with next to nothing. Dative says,
‘I’m old and I have charge of these children without food and other elementary things so pray for us that God would bless us with such help.’
Homes
We have been able, with supporters’ help, to build four new homes for pygmy families but many still live in unimaginably basic accommodation. The walls are often just sticks and grass, the roofs are leaky iron sheets or tarpaulin, the insides are volcanic rubble or black earth, and the furniture is next to non-existent. As one of the mother’s, Maniraguha says,
‘life in this village is not easy, we have nothing and we do not have houses to live in’.
Our dream is for every pygmy family to live in a place of dignity and hope, weatherproof and safe.