YOUR SUPPORT CAN PREVENT WOMEN WITH HIV FROM DYING AND LEAVING THEIR CHILDREN ORPHANS.Watch a video
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ixTGbzjWPP6N250ob13AvgP8H5YC3AOj/view?usp=sharingIn the East of Rwanda in a rural area of Gatsibo is a Church supporting many poor villagers of different faiths including 70 women, Ros - our Chairman, met on her research visit in March 2020. The women all had HIV due to the legacy of the Genocide that ended in 1994.
A Pastor at the Church formed an HIV support group, the woman told Ros that there were many more women who could not attend nor could their children go to the school as they were too ill to travel and had no decent clothes & were ashamed.
The women who work on the land tried to help the others & said that some of them saved a tiny amount each week for coffins so that they could be decently buried. This is their immediate future without food or work as they are unable to take their medication without eating, so they know that if they go hungry, they will die very soon.
The Church borrowed two sewing machines so that some could learn a trade & work from the back of the building, but the women needed space, more machines & a building to work from to form a cooperative. CDUK were committed to provide a sewing workshop for these women so that they are able to make and sell clothes at the market, provide food for themselves and their families and survive.
In March 2023 the building was completed but we could only afford 4 machines and need 6 more
We wanted to help the women to make a secure building where they could meet, with room for at least 10 sewing machines, tables & storage so that they can learn a trade, support themselves, each other & their families. We run the workshop using solar power to reduce the impact on their environment and the overhead costs to maintaining the project.
We hope maybe they will not need the coffins so soon as they will be able to eat, take their medication, earn a living & look after their children safely. Please help us to achieve this goal.
In 2020 the Church also hosted a school with a food programme where more than 150 children received a daily meal & often, that was all the children had to eat in a week. At least 60 of the children attended school free because they were orphans or had mothers with HIV, who were unable to get work as no one would work with them & so they & their children go hungry due to lack of income and the mothers soon die leaving orphans.
There are no orphanages in this area and orphans have to depend upon the food programme at the Church or the good will of a poor rural community.
DURING COVID THE FOOD PROGRAMME CLOSED AND MANY CHILDREN DIED OF HUNGER WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO RAISE THE MONEY FOR A CONTINOUS GIFT TO THIS SCHOOL AS NOW CHILDREN DO NOT ATTEND, - FOOD WAS THE INCENTIVE TO GO AND LEARN. CAN YOU HELP, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS?In the summer of 2020 CDUK provided the Church with two water harvesting tanks to support the Church Food Programme and supply clean water for food preparation and better hygiene. Many thousands of young children a year die as a result of polluted water. Previously the Church collected fresh water in tanks by bike from many miles away for cooking & used rain water from muddy puddles for washing.
CDUK also wants to sink a well near the Church for village use by people of all faiths. Currently the only clean water has to be collected & paid for at a government water source several miles away at approximately the equivalent of one penny per litre
Volunteers have been making dresses for the girls from unwanted pillow cases and Bermuda shorts for the boys from recycled materials, they have held fundraising events to raise the money for postage to the project. For more information and dress and shorts patterns and how you can get involved go to our page on Pillowcase Dresses. People are also being asked to donate good quality unwanted duvets and sheets to send out to the sewing workshop so that the women who are learning to sew can practice on less expensive materials. Send them in maximum 2 kilo packs, if you are able to help contact Ros at compassiondirectuk@gmail.com Thank you.
