We were a group of 11 including Callum; a mix of friends from church and from home; spanning school leavers to retirement. Many of us had been before and some many times. We spent 10 days together in Rwanda before splitting so half stayed in Rwanda and half headed to Goma with Callum. Group 2 arrived and overlapped with us, which was great!
As you can see from Cat’s video – our time was filled with laughter, music, dancing, crafts and food. We visited the Comfort Babies nursery; spent time with almost all the Kigali street kids projects; visited the Africa Hope Initiative and the Joy Centre, where we met the newest intake of sewing and welding students. We had several particularly fun days joining in with the construction of the Transformation Centre. And 3 days in the west of Rwanda, visiting communities supported by Good News, plus the obligatory boat trip on Lake Kivu where we swam and climbed to the top of Bat Island.
As a team we had raised money for the repair of Jeanette’s house in Bisesero. Bisesero is a community in the west of Rwanda that only a couple of us had visited before. It was particularly tragically impacted by the genocide, and when I visited in 2017 it was the only community where we were not met with singing and where the mostly male community leaders, whilst happy for us to spend time with the children and youth, didn’t want to spend time with us themselves. Many of you would recognise Jeanette because her beautiful smiling face features on the cover of Callum’s book “Unforgotten”.
This time our visit was very different. We spent the morning carrying the sand for the house repairs along the road from where it had been delivered to Jeanette’s house. A task accompanied with smatterings of conversation in Kinyarwandan and lots of good natured competition with the volunteers from the community. It was hot but lot of fun!
After this, we gathered with about 40 from the community in the shade of nearby trees, and unexpectedly, 3 men shared their testimonies of what had happened to them during the genocide. It was very hard to hear such tragic stories, told as though it happened just yesterday, but such a privilege to be trusted with such precious accounts; a testimony to the time and work of Callum and Good News over the past 10+ years.
A second highlight was the day we spent with the Batsinda street kids project. On the way to the project, we stopped to pick up about a dozen young men – all nearing the end of their time with the project. They were all smartly dressed, speaking excellent English, all in education, vocational training or employment. And some were in all 3! They were confident young men with plans for the future.
When we arrived at Batsinda, there was a whole new cohort of young people and their mothers gathered for a time of singing, dancing, encouragement and food. Seeing the older boys providing leadership and being such positive role models for these younger kids was such a privilege, and great evidence for the effectiveness of the project and the genuine love and fondness between the project leaders, project participants and their families.
And any account of our time in Africa, wouldn’t be complete without mentioning at least one story from Congo. We were so incredibly well looked after by the three wise men of Comfort Congo; Dieudonne, Joseph and Bedadi, and in just a few days we spent time with the Children of Liberty, the Goma street kids and their mums, the Comfort Congo Babies, visited the Sake orphanage and feeding project, and visited the Rusayu Hospital.
It is two year’s since we last visited, and in that time the whole region has been turned upside down by the militia takeover in early 2025 which brought violence and a mass of displaced people. The hospital itself was ransacked and left without medicines or beds. And yet, in the midst of all this, the new maternity unit has been completed and is now fully functional and staffed. The hospital provides excellent care to women who have survived unimaginable suffering. And the resilience and faithful service of the team who work in such difficult circumstances is incredible. It was a great privilege to spend time with the team and pray with the new mums and babies.
It’s very tricky to summarise a trip with some many highs, lows and random moments! Above all, it’s just great fun; spending time with the team and experiencing so many new things every day. I hope this has given you a small glimpse of what we did and why we keep going back!
Katherine