Report from Aug. 2009 trip to Rwanda by Heather and Sylvain

Sylvain and Heather are back home from our two-week trip to Rwanda. Being there only a short time, we worked quickly and were very busy, but accomplished many things. We met our most important goal, re-registering with Immigration as an International NGO, received our certificate and are very excited!

Also as AOH is growing we needed to add staff to help with the extra kids and responsibilities. We have added a Country Director who is in charge of making sure AOH runs smoothly and to continue to help AOH grow as God leads and directs. We also added an Accountant who will be in charge of all the money that is sent over. These two people will work together to help AOH run smoothly. Vincent who was the AOH Representative since AOH was established decided to pursue schooling and is no longer employed with AOH. We wish him well in the future. We continue to have three cooks who prepare food for the children every day. We are excited about the staff that we have and look forward to all that God desires for this organization.

It was very exciting to see the all kids in the organization again. Most of these kids have been a part of AOH for four years and they are growing up fast. It is exciting to see the progress they are making with their school and their behavior. These kids come from very difficult homes, some with no parents, some with only one. Some of our kids’ parents are infected with HIV/AIDS. AOH partners with the families to help provide the best opportunities for these kids. AOH also helps parents and children with medicines, hospitalizations and any emergencies that arise.

We currently have 26 children in the AOH program in Rwanda. These children are getting older and schooling is costing more and AOH is trying to help them emotional as well, with all they have to deal with. We provide counseling for the children by a Christian Counselor and they have taken advantage of this resource. Some needs at this time:

• Hospitalization for our young man with the abscess (at this time has cost $120 and will continue to increase)
• Counseling 2-3 times a month ($100 for each session)
• Increase cost of schooling for the children
• Planning to provide the families with small projects to generate income
• Increase in staff and salaries

These are just a few of the needs. These kids don’t have any other resources at this time and their parents are not able to provide for them due to sickness or lack of job opportunities.

If you are interested in sponsoring a child, we are able to send you a name and picture of the child. Please email me at heather@africaanchor.org and let me know if you have any questions. Over the past five years we have seen a positive change in the kids behavior. It is so neat to see them grow up and to see how excited they are about all the people here who love them. We are excited about AOH and pray God directs us on how to love and help these children. Thank you for taking the time to read this email.  

Yours Truly,

Heather Clark, Anchor of Hope 

    Following are some exerpts from letters Sarah sent from Rwanda in  2008.  

Hello to all~ We settled on an office to rent and had a big open house for the children and their parents!  We had a great time and almost all the parents came with the children.  We had snacks and fanta and spoke to the families about the program of Anchor of Hope, since we are now working independently and are not under the Ligue, which is where we had been operating from.  We were able to show them pictures of the children with a projector that we borrowed and had a slideshow to music.  The pictures were from 2004, 2006, and this year.  It was fun for the kids and parents to see pictures from the years past.  Anyway, it was a wonderful day and very exciting!  One of our children "graduated" from our program and we presented him with a Bible and spoke about his life and how we are proud of him.  He was one of the very first kids that we started AOH with and is the first one to graduate.  He loves the Lord and I can see Jesus in his life when he talks.  I am so excited about his life.  He graduated from Auto-mechanic school, but hasn't been able to find a job in that area yet- he decided that he needed some job though, because he wanted to begin to provide for his mother and brother so he is working as a houseboy for a family for this time.  Please pray for him to find a job as a mechanic.  We know God has his life in his hands. His name is Muzungu.

We will feed the children from our new office for the first time on Sunday!  Anchor of Hope has now employed 3 cooks and a security guard in addition to our Representative, Vincent, who has been with us.  I have been at the market all day today with one of the cooks and the Vincent to prepare for this upcoming week of feeding the children.  There are a lot of new things happening and many things to continue organizing but we are really encouraged about the progress and the things that are happening. 

`````````````````````````````````````

As leaders of Anchor of Hope, Heather and I are really excited about the things that God accomplished with Anchor of Hope during this trip. We thank each of you who are involved in Anchor of Hope in any and every way.  We thank each of you who have been interested enough to keep up with our trip and the things that are happening in our organization.  God birthed the vision for this organization 4 years ago when two naive 24 year old girls went to Rwanda wanting to make some kind of difference in the lives of the people in the continent of Africa.  God has taken us on a wild ride, has taught us so much and blessed us tremendously along the way.  We pray that God will always remain in the drivers seat and will lead Anchor of Hope to be what He wants it to be.  Thank you for your prayers!

***If you are excited about what God is doing with Anchor of Hope and through Anchor of Hope, please share about our organization and  ministry with your friends and churches. 

If you would like for us to visit your church or a small group of another kind, please let us know and we can work with you to find a time upon our return, as our ministry is growing and opportunities are plentiful for doing more according to God's will and the capacity of our organization.