Spreading the Word on our Story

Today we were blessed to be on the radio sharing more of our story. It will be re-streamed Saturday night at 7 pm EST and Sunday @ 10 am EST. Join us on relevantradio1330.com. Thank you for loving our kids so abundantly.

Current Needs for our Kids in Rwanda.

We're trying to quickly assemble care packages for our kids in Rwanda. We welcome your participation if you able to help assemble one of more pieces of our care packages. Please reply on facebook to New Hope Homes, Rwanda or rwandadonna@mac.com Our next care package for the kids in Rwanda. Can you help?Share Today at 7:07pm | Edit Note | Delete We are trying to create a care packages for our sweet kids in Rwanda. As time goes by we realize that we need to have quality clothes and shoes as the dirt road really tear up the shoes. Each of the kids now have about 3-4 sets of clothes and Chantal would like each of them to have one nice outfit for church. Thus we are looking for quality shoes and one nice outfit per child. Additionally we are gathering up quality backpacks as the ones purchased locally are only lasting 3 months. I will do one shipment from MN and one from NY to Colorado for Chantal and Mbanda’s kids who are going to bring them with them. All packages need to be to Colorado by May 3rd. Here’s the master list of needs. Needs: Backpacks: 7 for boys. 14 for girls. Clothes Remember, all clothes are handwashed in bucket so please consider durability and lack of irons. Name Sex Shoe Size Clothes size Age Dorcas F 6 5T 2.5 Ester F 11 5 6 Nshimiye M 11 6/7 4 Alice F 9 5 4 Sunday M 3 10 10 Kayitesi F 13 10 7 Lionel F 1 7 8 Isaac M 2 10 8 Innocent M 1 7 5 Sarah F Under 12 month 12 month to 18month. Ingabire F 5 2T 1 Deborah F 6 4T 3 Silvie F 8 4T 2 Dorine F 10 6 5 Marie F 13 6 7 Betty F 10 6 3 Fabiola F 13 8 8 Kagabo M 12 5 5 Mwami M 9month old 9 month Desami M 9month old 9 month Desami M 9month old 9 month (yes, there are twin boys with the same name) Prince M 8 4 2 Kwizera M 2T 9 month Caria F 2T 1year Rebecca F 6 4T 2 years Mbabazi F 5 4T 2 years Ariane F 6 5XS 2 1/2 Backpack for Girl – 14 needed Back pack for Boy – 7 needed Nice pair of shoes for one of the kids above (list name) 1 nice outfit for one of the kids above (list name) cold, cough or flu medicine for kids. Let me know if you want to ship your directly to Colorado or to NY or MN. You can see the photos of each child on the main website: calmministries.org Thank you for reaching out in love to our kids. Donna

GREAT Report Cards

Chantal and Mbanda Skyped me late this afternoon to tell me the kids got their grades and WHOO HOO, they all did well. Here's the report. 1st, the kids going to school near that homes in Kigali Marie Rose #2 in her class a 94.9%! 2 years ago, she was eating beans and potatoes from the garden and weighed just 28 pounds at 4 years old. Innocent is #4 on his class with 92.7% Kayetesi/Peace is #17 which is still GREAT in a class of 30. -------- Now for our 4 adventures that are in their 1st semester at Boarding School. This is their 1st time away from New Hope Homes and we only get to visit 1x a month, so we were thrilled that this advanced school is yielding great results. Lionel (1st grade) is #2 in his class with 96.6%. He will be moving immediately to 2nd grade when they get back from Easter break. Issac (3rd grade) is #16 with 81.5% Fabiola (2nd grade) is #6 with 95.6% Sande is (2nd grade) #32 with 86.8% How exciting is this? We THANK their sponsors who have sacrificed much to pay for their schooling. This is great news especially if you think about what was happening in the country just 15 years ago. 3rd day of the genocide. Deathtoll would add another 10,000 people. As a reminder, we are looking to quickly assemble come care packages for the kids to be shipped in Early May, We need back packs 1 Nice pair of shoes and 1 nice outfit for each child Some cough and cold medicine for the kids. Let me know if you can help. Email me at rwandadonna@mac.com Blessings and Love. Donna

15 years ago and today

15 years ago the genocide was in full rage by morning. It started the night before when the plane carrying the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down at 8:23 pm. By 9:15 the killing began. Today we are continuing our journey of mirroring those same 100 days with goodness. I just heard from Chantal in Rwanda today with a current need. We have people traveling to New Hope Homes in Rwanda in May and we would like to fill their bags with current supplies for our 30 kids. Here are the needs: New good quality backpacks. The local ones seem to only last 3 months. New good walking shoes with good soles. We're learning about this one over time. Functional over cute. Durable is key. A nice set of clothes. Over the counter cough and cold medicine for kids. I brought over a big supply in January and they have already gone through most of it. Please reach out to me at rwandadonna@mac.com if you are able to help with any of these needs. Blessings and thanks for reaching out to us. Donna

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This evening marks the 100th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda

This evening at 8:23 pm a plane carrying the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down. Less than and hour later @ 9:15 pm the killing began. Over the next 100 days 1 million people were killed. Imagine, in a country the size of Maryland 10,000 people a day killed (mostly by machete) for 100 days. We are setting aside that same 100 days to do try to replace that duration of horror with acts of goodness. Our mission is simple. We pair 10 orphaned and abandoned kids with a widow to be their Mom, adding 2 aunties we create a family. These are not orphanages, these are truly homes. Kids that will be ours for our lifetime - extensions of our family. Thus far we've built 3 homes and care for 30 kids. I have personally witnessed lives transformed over the past 3 years that we've been working on this effort. 30 kids that have gone from living on the street and wondering where their next meal might come from and when it might come...to being top performers in school and dreams of being President. So much more to share over the next 100 days. Next is to build the 4th home. Consider joining our page on facebook too - New Hope Homes, Rwanda. More over the next 100 days. Thanks to Jim B who shared our story on the radio this morning.

Update

Thanks for your patience as I haven't updated my blog in quite some time. My heart still lives in Rwanda while I continue my work in NY. The kids are doing well. Chantal visited the 4 big kids in Boarding School and returned with a terrific report. I've updated our website with new photos and plan to keep at it doing it over the next few months. Next up is to begin the process of editing the videos. We've also entered into the brave new technology of being able to make online donations via the website, this blog and our new page on facebook. We pray that our investment will make it much easier for those who are able to contribute in this very challenging economy. Monday marks the 15th anniversary of the genocide. I am doing an interview that morning to kick off our fundraising efforts. Our focus will be on building the next home so another 10 kids will have the opportunity to thrive. I ask for your prayers that we'll bring more people to help with our work via prayers, expertise, personal visits and if possible financial commitments. If you are facebook...go to the top right corner and type New Hope Homes, Rwanda and become 'a fan.' More over the next 100 days as we reflect on the transformation of the country post genocide.