A couple of weeks ago we shared with you some news from Good News International (GNI), our dear project partners in Rwanda in our blog which you can find here. We are excited to share some more of the news with you, including the Gishyita Housing extensions and Karengera land extension.
Gishyita Housing Project
This project was started last year and is still ongoing this year. The project was planned to be implemented by both GNI and Karongi district, to build 20 homes for 20 vulnerable families who had no homes at all. Some of these families were living in high risk zones where their houses had been destroyed by rains and landslides, others had never had houses before. All 20 houses are now occupied. GNI has completed our part for 10 houses. The district has to finish the last works for the remaining 10 houses in order for the village to be completed. It is a village of about 72 people in total. The people in that village are very poor. They are people who don’t have land, they don’t have other resources. They thank everyone who contributed to support them get houses.
In their testimonies they talk about how life was very difficult when they had to rent houses for their families when they had no money at all. One lady who has been a refugee in Congo for many years told us that the house she got is very important for her family because the money she used to spend paying rent, she can now save and use to rent land where she can plant food for her children. Another man told us that he has never paid health insurance for his family before, because he was spending all his money paying rent. He said that his second child died in 2017 because he could not take her to the hospital as he had no health insurance. But he was very happy when he told us that last year and this year he was able to pay health insurance for his family. Others who were living in high risk zones told us that every time when it rained, they always had to stay out of the house for their safety, because it would be possible for the rain to wash out the house and kill everyone inside, so they were feeling safer out of the house than inside during the rain. They all have different testimonies which tell how much these houses they received have changed their lives.
It is a community of people who still need some help because they seem to be behind other communities. Some of their children still show signs of malnutrition, they don’t have proper clothing, they are not all going to school, so we need to support them as much as we can.
We deeply thank Comfort International, Bishopbriggs Community Church and Sandyhills church for all your supports and prayers toward this project. Your sacrifices are very important to change the lives of people to give them hope. God bless you, your families and your churches. (You can read more about the Gishyita housing project in our blog.)
Karengera land extension
We thank Comfort International for supporting Karengera community to buy their own land last year and extend it this year. The community is very happy that in the next 2 years, when the contract of renting the land they have will be finished, they will then have their own land. They are still in the process of preparing that land so that next year they will start planting the pineapples.
Karengera community is one of the most successful communities through their pineapple project. According to their reports, from January until October, they received an income of 1,870,000Rwf (roughly equivalent to almost £1,500). They have used that money to pay health insurance for the community members and also to pay school fees for some of their students and they still have some money left in their bank account.
We are so grateful for the report of all the wonderful work going on in Rwanda through our partnership with GNI. We look forward to sharing the final part of the report with you soon!