Bicycles

In January, Matthew De Young, volunteer for Project Rwanda, did a great deed for the Imbabazi—he fixed our bicycles.

Years ago, the bicycles were donated by the Dallaire Foundation. These were good bikes but they deteriorated greatly due to our road condition and many hours of enjoyment by nearly 100 children.

Matt, who lives an hour from us, donated his time and expertise. In stage one of repair, he was able to

get three of the five bikes up and going again. This was no small feat considering how badly the bikes were damaged. The bikes are now safe to ride around the orphanage. Soon, Matt will be back with additional parts and hopes to fix the remaining two bikes.

Many children already knew how to ride a bike. Those who know are patiently teaching the others. It’s great to see the kids working together as a family. Now the bikes are enjoyed by the children after completing their chores and schoolwork. It’s something they look forward to every Saturday.  I think they have worn a permanent track around the orphanage!

One child wrote to Matt:

“Thank you so much for spending your time here at the Imbabazi to help us fix the bikes. It’s a hard job to do that. We enjoy the great thing you did for us.”

Through the Eyes of Children Photography Project

By Gadi

Through The Eyes of Children: The Rwanda Project (TTEOC) is a non-profit organization founded by American photographer David Jiranek, in 2000. He came to the Imbabazi Orphanage and decided he wanted to help us by teaching some of the children photography.

Nineteen children from the Imbabazi Orphanage have participated in this project. The purpose of this project was to teach orphans photography, to create memories, to let us express ourselves and share our photos with the world. We shot photos in Gisenyi where we lived for seven years before coming back to our home in Mutura. At the first workshop, we used disposable cameras but now we use digital cameras.  Jaqueline’s photo ,from the first workshop, titled “Gadi at the market” won first prize for portrait in the 2001 Camera Art Magazine photo contest. This project has been successful because we have been able to document our lives, learned a lot of photography and it has been able to raise some money to pay a portion of our education fees.

Our photos have been exhibited around the world, even in Rwanda in 2001.

Recently, we had a workshop from 8^th-11^th of January. During this workshop we learned photography skills and discuss how we can continue our photography on our own.  The first day of this workshop, Saturday, we walked in the community shooting photos. The next day we did the same thing. On Monday, we took a trip to Gisenyi. There we visited Ubumwe Community Center where Zachary and Frederick help people who have different physical and mental disabilities. We took photos of the people there. We had lunch at the Auberge restaurant then shot photos around Gisenyi town.  After this, we headed to Paradise restaurant near the brewery about 5 km from Gisenyi town. There we shot photos around Lake Kivu. Then we turned back to Mutura.  On the last day of the workshop we walked to the market near our home called Kibumba market to take photos of the people selling their goods. Also, a few of us took photos at the local primary school.

On the 12^th of January at 5:30 am we took a bus to Kigali for our final day of working with TTEOC. From 10am until 4pm we met with the press, professional photographers and artists who told us about their jobs. During these seminars, we learned how we can earn money from our photography skills.

After the seminars we prepared ourselves for our main purpose of going to Kigali, our photo exhibition. The exhibition included our photos from the entire ten years of the project. This took place at the Kigali Serena from 6-8pm. During the exhibition, many people came from different organizations and even some representatives from the government attended. Also, press representatives such as newspaper reporters, radio reporters, and Rwanda TV station came. Some of us were interviewed by the reporters. Before closing the exhibition, we were given an official certificate of achievement. We felt very proud being called professional photographers.

After the exhibition, we spent the night together at a hotel in Kigali. After breakfast the following day, we said goodbye to everyone from TTEOC and headed back to Mutura.

For more information or to buy a print:

www.rwandaproject.org

http://www.facebook.com/RwandaProject

Visiting Orphans

By Twagiramungu

Usually in break time from school we fortunately get visitors from different parts of the world. At the beginning of January, we received two teams of students and business people from the United States. Their main purpose was visiting orphans all over Rwanda.

The first team of mostly students offered gifts to us to celebrate the happy new year. Everyone was very happy for the things like sweets, sunglasses and balloons.  It was a great day being with those visitors. Some older children like Gadi, Mussa, Umuhoza, Clemance and I talked with the visitors and showed the visitors around the orphanage and Madame Carr’s gardens.

The second team was mixed by adults and student visitors, some were workers too. They did a very good job because they gave us condolences saying that we have to be happy and know that God love us. They are doing great work. Their speech healed our heart. We did many activities with them like playing baseball and soccer. We spent time talking; sharing ideas and asking questions. Added to that, the children sang many songs and I played the guitar.

To conclude, I desperately want to congratulate the two teams that visited us in the summer and we appreciate it quite well. We address to all who want to visit us that they are quite welcome and know that visiting orphans is earning blessings.

Visiting SORWATHE

By Mussa

In this break time on the 5^th of January, 2011, all the children and workers of the Imbabazi Orphanage visited the tea factory SORWATHE. The factory is located in the Northern Province. We travel four hours from our home in Mudende to the factory.

The children had a great time visiting the factory because we were free to see everything; we even asked questions. The director of SORWATHE, Cally Alles; an Imbabazi board member, welcomed us kindly. After saying hello to everyone, he asked his workers to show us around. Before the tour, Cally told us briefly the history of SORWATHE. He said that the name is a French abbreviation for “Societe Rwanda The.” Then he added that it was the first big tea factory in Rwanda. After the history, we went in groups to see what the workers were doing.

The children learning about tea quality.

 We visited different departments. For example, we observed how machines prepare the tea leaves for different types of tea such as strong tea, light tea, green tea and orthodox tea. This place was very interesting for everyone and very attractive to scientists. That is why our children who study sciences were asking many questions. Also, we went out of the factory to visit the farm where the tea is planted. Truly, when you are looking at a distance you can think that you are seeing a big garden but when you approach you find that it is a green tea farm.

At SORWATHE, we were with the Imbabazi staff, Jeff, Devon Emmanuel and others. Being with them made us very happy. We took lunch at the factory. The food was very delicious. After lunch, all the children became very happy; even though they were happy before. They started singing songs to express their thanks to Cally for the tour and lunch. Also, we asked questions to Cally about employment and internship opportunities. He promised good things and told us how to begin the process. Not only Cally but also Katie Fawcett, our friend, Imbabazi board member and director of Karisoke Research Center, was asked questions about internships. The Imbabazi staff was helping us to ask questions and express our point of view.

In general, the children had fun. I don’t know how I can say that in words; you can only know if you were there! Everyone did not want to come back.

In closing, very much the director of SORWATHE, Cally, who took his time inviting and staying with us when we were in his factory. In the name of the nation, we thank Cally because he is helping the government to develop the country. May God bless him a lot. We wish that we will get another chance to visit other places in the future.