Hope

Today we traveled an hour west of Kigali to a Congolese refugee camp and it was another powerful day.  A little history here.  When the current President Paul Kagame overran the Hutu in 1994, around a million Hutu fled to the neighboring Congo where they feared retaliation (that never came).  Congo is also made up of Tutsis and Hutu and the Hutu went into the Congo and continued to kill Tutsis.  The Congo was already a pretty unstable place because of the mineral wealth and this made things even worse so many Tutsis fled to Rwanda to live in refugee camps where they are allowed to stay but don't receive much help from the government.  These camps which were met to be temporary have been around for nearly 20 years.  The people live on 24 cents a day sent to them on cell phones by the UN.  They have now built houses out of mud in very rocky terrain and use the UN tents as roofs.  The camp we visited has 14,000 refugees.

These Numbers has several Congolese students who have defied the odds and can enter University through their program.  Two of these students scored among the top 30 in the country (one number 2!) and would have been eligible for a government scholarship to go to select Colleges in the U.S., but they were denied because they were Congolese.  One of these, Jean Paul, has actually been resettled with his family to the U.S. in Portland where he has started attending College.

There is an Adventist group that provides education in the camp through what would be our equivalent of 10th grade.  However, to attend University you must sit for your A Levels which would be the equivalent of our last two years of high school and you must score high enough on the placement test.  Some of the extremely bright students can win scholarships to schools in nearby communities.  However most of the students have no opportunity to pursue college.  Amazingly enough, they decided to start their own A Levels school called Hope school in 2009.  They started with 40 kids a year and are now up to 290!  They found volunteer teachers from their community to teach them.  Alice, pictured here, is in University with These Numbers, turned down a paying job to come back and voluntarily teach.  She is studying Electrical Engineering and teaches math and science at the school.  The guys pictured next to her run the school.  It is such an amazing and inspiring story!

Keep in mind that this community has no electricity or running water and large families live in very cramped houses.  I am inspired by how hard these kids work and how maintain hope in such tough circumstances.  The dream of the community is to be able to return to Congo some day.  The University students hope to take the skills they learn to bring things like electricity, roads, water, and other services when they return to Congo.  Unfortunately, the situation in Congo is still not very good.

We visited the three students houses and met their families.  Kalami's family cooked us a spectacular feast that was incredibly delicious.  We had a very large family cramped into the house, but had an amazing time with them and we even shared with them about snow.

Claude's story is so incredibly remarkable.  He is the youngest of 5 children of his mother and father.  His mother died and his father went back to the Congo to start a family with a new wife.  Both he and his new wife died.  The 5 siblings made an incredibly dangerous trip to the Congo to retrieve their 7 half brothers and sisters to bring them back simply because they were their siblings.  The oldest child became the head of the household and had to care for 12 kids.  They are truly a remarkable family and the whole experience truly moved me.  I finished the day by having a great conversation with Tina about the history of Rwanda and the future of These Numbers.  I am in awe of truly amazing things that are being done here.