If we spend any time together, it won't take long to learn that a recently acquired (well, since 2017) passion of mine is the child-sponsorship program and ministry of Acts4Rwanda.
Once you start me talking about it, it's difficult for you to stop me or for me to stop myself.
To learn about the incredible journey of how I even went from recluse to Rwanda, read my two-part series if you haven't already:
This introduction will explain what Acts4Rwanda is, how it came to exist, why it exists, and what it accomplishes. Hopefully it will stir something inside you to action even if it is not to the level that it did with me. I had the benefit and blessing of having very personal and intimate life stories and first-hand experiences shared with me to help shape my understanding of its necessity and successes.
The History
This history of Rwanda is what I have learned from various historical resources, from the Rwandan embassy to the United States, and from others longer familiar with the history of Rwanda than I have been.
Rwanda's indigenous inhabitants were the Hutus, the Tutsis, and the less numerous Twa, a pygmy people-group, all of which are Bantu-speaking peoples.
Prior to European involvement, Rwanda was presided over by Tutsi kings who ruled through cattle chiefs, land chiefs, and military chiefs. These chiefs were primarily Tutsi but not exclusively so.
The Tutsi ruling "upper class", possessed land and cattle, and they held most of the administrative power despite being in the minority compared to the more numerous Hutus. The Hutus were the working "lower class" and were predominately farmers. The Twa were hunter-gatherers or potters. Under the kingdom government, the relationship between these groups were beneficial and somewhat symbiotic through exchange of their labor.
Prior to European colonization, people moved between these people-group categories as their fortunes rose and fell, and intermarriage was not uncommon. This would seem to indicate social classism rather than tribal identity. Studies show Tutsi and Hutu genetic make-up are so similar that it is difficult to determine whether they descended from a common ancestral people or that the genetic similarity is due to extensive intermarrying.
Under the German and Belgian involvement, each of whom ruled indirectly through the Tutsi kings, a cash crop economy was introduced and enforced which began the alienation between the king and his chiefs with the rest of the people.
In 1884, Rwanda was assigned to Germany at the Berlin Conference as part of German East Africa, and it became a German colony in 1899. The Germans showed preference to the Tutsi minority as the wealthier and powerful ruling class. This preferential treatment began driving wedges between the Hutus and the Tutsis.
After Germany was defeated in World War 1 in 1919, Rwanda became a mandate territory under the League of Nations and its administration was given to Belgium in 1924. The Belgians, like the Germans, showed preferential treatment to the Tutsis. By 1935, they pushed the distinction even further than the Germans had by introducing national identity cards. With these identity cards, the Belgians took the divisiveness to extremes. To determine which group a person belonged included how many heads of cattle man owned, and such atrocious methods as measuring skull sizes, nose lengths and widths, assessing skin tone, assessing height and stockiness, etc. All of this further drove division between the people groups.
Calls for independence began rising. Eventually, events led to a 1959 Hutu rebellion, attacks and counter-attacks, a mass exodus of Tutsi refugees to neighboring countries, the Tutsi monarchy abolishment in 1961, Belgium withdrawing with Rwandan independence in 1962, and followed by decades of battles and massacres between the Hutus and Tutsis.
The continued animosity culminated in the civil war that is known as the Rwandan Genocide and considered one of history's greatest humanitarian crises.
On April 6, 1994, Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile.
Between April 7 and July 15, 1994 between 600,000 and 1,000,000 Rwandans were killed. Men, women, and children were brutally slaughtered, often at the hands of those who had just recently been their friends.
Thousands of Twa were killed in the war either as suspected allies of the Hutus or simply a result of hateful ethnic cleansing. Many more thousands fled into neighboring countries. Today, there are believed to be between 20,000 and 30,000 Twa out of Rwanda's 13 million population.
Today's focus of identity is directed away from tribal, ethnic, and physical division and encouraged and refocused on unity of simply being Rwandan.
Result of Genocidal Civil War
Rwanda today has one of the world's highest concentrations of orphans and child-led households. Those effects lingering today presents itself in a form of systemic poverty.
Lynda's story tells of how she was in Rwanda on a mission trip. She saw many, many children roaming the streets. She asked her trip leader why these children weren't in school. She was told that it was because their families couldn't afford to send them to school. Lynda was spurred to action, made contacts, and co-founded Acts4Rwanda in 2013 with David Alireki and other friends in Rwanda.
It's More Than Just Numbers
The Rwandan education system is divided into six Primary levels (P1 through P6) and six Secondary levels (S1 through S6). It is comparable to our Western education system of grades 1 through 12. Students are nationally tested after Primary-6 with their results identifying their strengths. From those results, it is determined what secondary would be best to focus on their strengths. After Secondary-3, students are nationally tested again. These results are used to determine if their current school is still the best match for them, or if an alternate secondary school would be better. After graduating Secondary-6, students are nationally tested again, and these results help determine scholarships and what university is best suited for their strengths to assist them into their career path.
However, unlike our Western education system where grades are semi-linked with a student's age, in Rwanda you start or restart as you can. Several of our Acts4Rwanda high school students are in their early and mid twenties. To them, it isn't uncommon, and it doesn't matter. Education is so highly valued in Rwanda, they are determined to graduate, continue on through vocational school or university, and make better lives for themselves and their families.
It is common to see older siblings saving and sacrificing to send their younger siblings to school after their own graduation. I became friends with a young lady who works at the boarding place where I stay when in Rwanda, and we have maintained contact with one another. Her name is Amina, and she is a lovely, young, 24-year old woman who is 4th born of 7 siblings. She is working very hard trying to earn enough to afford getting her younger 20-year old brother back into school to finish his final 3 years of secondary school.
You can get more information at the Acts4Rwanda website linked at the bottom of this post, but here are a few things for you to chew on:
+ 62% of Rwandan children have either never been to school or did not finish primary grades.
+ 85% of the country still lives on less than $2 a day.
+ 40% of Rwandan children under the age of 5 are chronically malnourished.
+ More than 42,000 homes are led by children under the age of 18.
The Whats, Whos, and Hows of Acts4Rwanda
Acts4Rwanda is a 501(c)3 organization created to love, assist, and invest in the lives of vulnerable children in Rwanda.
The in-country staff of Acts4Rwanda is intimately connected with the surrounding community and intentionally looking for children from at-risk homes suffering from abuse or neglect.
The Acts4Rwanda mission is to equip vulnerable children to break the cycle of poverty and flourish as future servant-leaders in society by using a holistic approach of providing more than just a bible and a meal:
1) It employs a spiritual basis by sharing a message of hope about God's love through daily bible studies.
2) It covers the costs for all school fees, school materials, uniforms, shoes, and more for each child from grade 1 through graduation.
3) It provides each child a guaranteed meal every day, healthcare, medical insurance, a mattress, linens, hygiene items, and more.
And financial commitment from the child's family is not required!
Acts4Rwanda maintains a personal relationship with each student and their family. Many of the mothers of the students are taught to sew, weave baskets or bowls, and to make jewelry through The Women's Initiative in order to have an income. A link to the Women's Initiative website is also at the bottom of this post.
Another amazing attribute of Acts4Rwanda is that if a child's sponsor stops supporting the child, that child is not ejected from the program until another sponsor picks them up. They are kept in the program, and their fees are covered out of the general fund, although that may reduce resources for other needs of the program.
Acts4Rwanda Impact
Over 180 students have been in the program. Acts4Rwanda students consistently rank at the tops of their classes, with over 20% ranking in the top 5 of their class. To date, 100% of senior students graduate and every student has passed their national exams to move on to the next level - one of the Acts4Rwanda students was the #1 position student in the country!
To date, we have 29 Acts4Rwanda alumni students in universities around the world. Almost every one of these students are on full-ride scholarships!
Student Appreciation
Rwandans who are now only thirty years old were born during the time of the genocide and its immediate aftermath. Their children, and the children of parents just several years older, are the students of today. Many come from single parent homes, and many don't have relatives from their grandparents' generation.
One young lady that I began sponsoring on my inaugural trip to Rwanda is only twenty-two years old and a senior in high school. She was born only eight years after the Genocide. When you have that sort of traumatic history, and come from an impoverished life, you certainly would feel like one of the forgotten and discarded.
She told me on our meeting: "We love when you come to visit us. It makes us feel like we have value."
Students also express their appreciation that someone would take their time away from their own family, friends, and jobs and with great expense (an expense really far beyond their imagination) travel half-way around the world to specifically spend time with them out of love for them.
Stirred to Action?
If you are like me and many others, this heartbreaking history and the plight of many struggling Rwandan families and at-risk children stirs you, there are a number of ways you can help and be involved.
+ Spread the word about Acts4Rwanda and what it is accomplishing.
+ Pray for the impoverished and vulnerable Rwandans.
+ Pray for Acts4Rwanda's support and direction, the American and Rwandan leadership teams, and the sponsors.
+ Make a monthly or a one-time donation to Acts4Rwanda through the website.
+ Partially or fully sponsor a child, or several, if you are able.
+ Visit Rwanda with Acts4 and meet these incredible and loving students for yourself.
If you would like to read more about my first trip to Rwanda, and share with me what Acts4Rwanda is like, check out my post Rwanda - My First Trip
I'm sure there will be many more posts in the future covering my future trips. Stay tuned!
Also, check out these websites:
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