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Rwanda
The distribution of 1,000 bedkits today was successful - whew! The site was good, with lots of space for kids and parents. Having parents able to see from above the photo and bedkit site was great and Margo did good work directing traffic handing out bedkits.
And of course the grand finale has the Rotary and SCAW teams together for the final photo
Team Rwanda, 2024
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
Up early today as we have two sites and a long drive ahead of us. As we arrived back at Karama, children and families were already lined up. We managed to complete the remaining 100 bedkits in less than an hour before heading back on the road.
Kinazi was our next destination where we received a nice welcome from the Mayor. As we made introductions, kids and parents cheered loudly as we explained the items in the bedkit. With temperatures dipping below 20 (cold for Africa!) the blanket was a special hit. The 500 bedkit distribution went extremely smooth today, and we were on the road again before we knew it. Next up is a 5 hour drive to Rubavu, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
One interesting observation is the number of children wearing Christmas and Disney themed clothing. It's a good reminder that as seasons change and fads evolve, the circular economy is evident in Rwanda.
Team Rwanda, 2024
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
After a much needed rest day, the team departed south for Huye, formerly known as Butare. The journey began with a long and slow crawl up one of the steeper hills behind a transport truck that just barely made it to the top. We enjoyed watching the bicycles hitch a ride using the bumper of the truck as it rolled along.
As the road opened up we took in the lush greenery of the rolling hills of Rwanda. Huye is home to the National University, and was once a leading candidate to become the capital of Rwanda after independence, but lost out to Kigali due to its central location. Now, Huye is the fourth largest town in Rwanda with a population of 55,000.
On the outskirts of town, we turned off the main road onto a rain-rutted, red clay trail, until we arrived at Karama. The site was large, situated in a valley surrounded by tall hills. Today's progress was slow, but steady. This particular area was one of the more impoverished, with many disabled and barefoot children. The need here was very evident.
As the day progressed, dark clouds turned to torrential rain with mothers, children and the team all seeking shelter. A decision was made to pause the remainder of the distribution for the day, and continue the next morning. Our team shuttled back for an overnight stay in Huye to rest up for what will be a busy day tomorrow.
Team Rwanda, 2024
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
Today is our second last day in the Lake Kivu area and the distribution was cancelled due to bedkit transport issues. Tomorrow will be a double distribution day (2 x 500) followed by a four hour drive back to Kigali ahead of a factory visit and then a flight home on Saturday.
Today we enjoyed a local chicken lunch on the shore of Lake Kivu.
Wish us luck tomorrow!
Team Rwanda, 2024
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
An excellent day, today, in all sorts of ways!
This is our eighth day of distributing bedkits and it took place right in Rubavu Town, about 10 minutes from where we are staying. The site was a school with children from grade 1 to grade 11 and the principal helped us by providing access to three classrooms which we used for handing out the bedkits as well as a space for taking pictures of the children receiving them.
In the classroom there was a timetable for the grade 5 students and it shows how much time these children spend in school, starting at 8:45 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday. Students are provided a lunch by the school each day, a common practice in Rwandan schools. Blackboards are still being used with chalk for writing. Here is a picture of the timetable in one classroom:
We successfully distributed 500 bedkits today and thanks to the weather holding (i.e. no rain or thunderstorms), an excellent, hardworking Rwandan volunteer group from the local area as well as the Overseas Partner Volunteer Rotarians on site, all was done within five hours, our best time yet.
We try and make the experience of the children receiving the bedkits as fun and memorable as possible. Our team leader, Doug, is a master at this using his oversized clappers and bubble wands to the delight of the children. Some samples of Doug’s talents are pictured below.
When we finished the bedkit distribution, we then headed out to do a home visit. From where we distributed the bedkits to where the family lived, was about 5 kilometres. On the way there we saw other families on their way home carrying their bedkits. They had big smiles on their faces and looked so happy as we drove by.
At our home visit, we met a family where the husband and wife had two children and had received a bedkit this morning. They walked the five km home and were there to greet us. They lived in a one bedroom, brick/concrete three room part of a house. We were shown the main room and kitchen. The mattress was a very welcome addition so that the little girl had a place to sleep on her own without having to share the communal bed. The family was very happy and appreciative to get the rest of the bedkit which will, no doubt, be put to very good use.
The team worked very well today to ensure that another 500 children will get a good night’s sleep.
For the children . . . .
Team Rwanda, 2024
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
Today’s adventure!
We were delayed with today’s distribution until the afternoon so being able to sleep longer and relax in the morning was a treat. Our team strolled down to Kivu Lake, giving us a chance to explore the area. Then off we went to our distribution. Thank goodness for our wonderful driver, Jean Claude, as he maneuvered us through the rough roads of Mahoko! The team had to get out of the van while he safely got us over this hole in the road (pictured below). There was a street market going on so everyone was watching.
Around lunchtime we arrived at an alternate site from what was originally planned and we were greeted by many wonderful nursery school children who just wanted hugs and boy did they get them. It was a Catholic school with 250 nursery school age children and 1250 senior students. The headmaster graciously canceled school in the afternoon so we could use his school for our distribution!
Before the senior students left we watched and participated in a little basketball. Apparently the game of basketball is taken quite seriously in Rwanda and these boys did not disappoint!
Before the students went home we were able to engage in some English conversation with them and as you can see in the photo below, English was one of the subjects being taught. One young man in a group asked me, “How can I learn better English like you?” to which I answered, “Well I was a teacher and these 2 ladies are nurses and the best answer is to stay in school and study,” to which he replied, “I will do that!”
When all students had cleared out of the school we began to give out the 500 bedkits. Of course we had some help at the beginning to get the mattresses in place.
We also had help as the children left the gated school to find their parents.
It was another successful day here in Rwanda with 500 more children sleeping well, despite the rainy day!
Team Rwanda, 2024
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
First Rwanda Road Trip
Home base has been the capital city, Kigali, but at the end of the week we headed east a few hours to the district of Gatsibo. We went to three distribution sites over two days with an overnight in a hotel in Kabarore. This was challenging for the Rotary and SCAW teams but successful although we ended in the dark the first day using car headlights to help take the final pictures. On the road trip we saw interesting types of road conveyances and then we saw the extensive cooperative, as well as agriculture in the lush valleys (Rwanda is the country of 1,000 hills) with rice, kidney beans, bananas, potatoes, tea and more.
Our team is great, and we are having fun with the children, parents and the Rotary members as you can see in the team photo with bubbles.
And we ended the evening in Kabarore sampling the local Banana wine – which was a uniquely new taste – and look!
We are travelling back to yesterday’s site to finish since lightning and torrential rain shut it down - it will be a big day with two sites one hour apart and then a 4-5 hour drive to the western sites.
The view from my hotel room is above and there is a bus station that emits VERY loud revs starting at 5:30 am.
Team Rwanda, 2024
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
It was a good day!
It is a big operation to organize 500 children to receive their bedkits with contents of the right size: dresses for the girls, shorts and t-shirts for the boys, sandals, a basin for washing, sheets, a blanket, three workbooks, two pens, a mosquito net, a backpack for school and a mattress for a good night’s sleep. Oh, and there is a language challenge as well which makes it really interesting as do some of the cultural norms! It is a great learning experience for us all. And, at the end of the day, like magic, there are happy parents/guardians and children on their way home.
Rwanda is a recently added country for our distributions and SCAW has been working very hard with the Overseas Volunteer Partner (OVP), the Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga, to provide bedkits to various parts of the country where they are most needed. It is a tremendous undertaking given that the OVP sources the contents of the bedkits, organizes their assembly, and then, after selecting the various distribution sites, gets them to the sites. Once there, the distribution process of registering the children, getting their picture taken and handing out the bedkits is always a challenge, especially to do it in a timely manner. And then we have to get the children back to the parents. So, it has been a learning process for all involved.
Our distribution site was a local government area and included a small compound of confiscated bikes and motorcycles. Here are our fearless team leaders hard at work!
While the children and families were waiting, ‘Bubbles’ AKA Doug, entertained the children and adults alike. There were lots of happy smiles and delighted laughter.
Team Rwanda, 2024
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
We were excited to be on the road driving to Gashora for our second day of distributions. On the way we saw people carrying huge bundles of sugarcane on the back of their bicycles. We could see the parents and their children anxiously anticipating the bed kits.
Help was waiting for us. The registration table was set up and most of the kits were ready to go. Since it was day two, we were aware of some of the issues we might face since “things might not happen as smoothly as we hoped.”
The afternoon took us to our 2nd distribution of the day in the district of Nyamata. We distributed over 600 bed kits today. Unfortunately, things were a little bit slower than we hoped, but not to be deterred, we completed the last few photos with the assistance of the headlights of a car as the sun set over the dusty fields.
Team Rwanda, 2024
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
And so it begins…
Today we were honoured to give out exactly 400 bedkits to the children in the first district of Ruhuha in Rwanda. All 400 bedkits arrived early at the site while it was still dark.
The children were delighted to see the colourful mattresses along with an additional bag filled with some sheets, a wool blanket, a mosquito net, a dress for the girls and some shorts for the boys along with an additional t-shirt, some school supplies and a brand new pair of flip flops.
But the best part of our day was seeing those colourful mattresses on the road home being transported on a bicycle along with the child. Yes there is a child there behind the parent!
All in all both the SCAW team and the Rotary Club of Kigali were thrilled to see the many smiles on the faces of the children.
Stay tuned for more adventures from our team.
Team Rwanda, 2024
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
After much planning and organizing by our team leads, Theresa C. and Doug M., as well as great support from the SCAW office, Team Rwanda 2024 was officially ready to head to Kigali. Team members Michael and January B. from Victoria, Theresa from Kamloops, Doug from Stratford, Margo L. from Port Stanley and Carol and Joep D. from Penetanguishene were eager to go.
Michael and January flew a western route from Victoria and arrived in Kigali on Sept. 21, as planned. The rest of the team flew the eastern route from Toronto to Brussels to Kigali, a total of around 16 hours flying time.
Travelling these distances is not always easy. Besides being on the long side, the group from Toronto had to be routed through Montreal, then they switched aircraft and flew overnight to Brussels. The plan was then to continue on several hours after arriving in Brussels and fly direct to Kigali landing around 6:30 pm. All was on track until 10 minutes prior to boarding for the final leg of our journey when the flight was cancelled. Then came the scramble to get rebooked so that we could still make the deadline of arriving at Kigali on Monday, September 23. Three hours later, we sorted out the remaining flight segment and, after spending Sunday night in Brussels courtesy of the airline, we arrived a day later than scheduled. Monday was planned to be a travel rest day with only the pre-distribution meeting scheduled for 5:30 pm.
We were joyfully met by some of the Rotary Club members after we landed and cleared customs and arrived at our accommodation by 9 pm. We will be rested and ready to go on Tuesday morning to start distributing 5,000 bedkits to children that really need them. We will continue this work over the next 11 days.
Our overseas partner, The Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga, has also been very busy sourcing and organizing the bedkits, selecting the children who will receive them, planning the logistics of transportation and deciding on the location to meet the children and be generally available to help this distribution run smoothly.
The process of getting the team to the country, meeting the overseas partner volunteers, getting to the various distribution sites and meeting both children and parents while representing the donor on site are all part of the interesting challenges that SCAW travel volunteers experience. No matter how much planning that is done, there will always be surprises that further challenge completing the task at hand and those surprises make this very special volunteer activity quite interesting.
And we do all of this . . . for the children.
Team Rwanda 2024
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
5000 Rwandan children are now sleeping cosy in their new bedkits, thanks to the generosity of our donors and the amazing volunteers who made this project shift from dream to reality! A huge thank you to the Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga for being advocates for the children in their community, volunteering their time and energy to the Sleeping Children project.
Teamwork really does make the dream work!
Team Rwanda 2023
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
Today we spent the day doing two distributions in the city of Kigali, which is also one of the five provinces that make up Rwanda. Initially, the day was overcast but the sun came out partway through the first distribution and we were just able to get the bedkits into the hands of the children before the sky opened up and the rain poured down - but not before we took kids’ pictures with our instant camera and sent some kids home with their very own photo. Within minutes, the storm drains along the sides of the road were rushing streams of water.
The weather dictated that the second distribution was held indoors, in a large hall that was part of a large school. It was more difficult to get pictures done, bedkits handed out and children delivered to their parents this time. But the children were so good and wonderfully patient as they awaited their turn for a picture. We sang songs, played games and blew bubbles and they readily joined in the fun. At recess at the school every window was plastered with kids’ faces looking to what was going on! It was a challenging afternoon but with the help of some amazing Rotarians and other volunteers we got through it and were returned to our hotel in time for dinner. Another day in the books!
Team Rwanda 2023
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
There are three short videos in the original post. Please click the link below that says, “View Original Post” to see them.
Happy Thanksgiving to family and friends back home in Canada. Umuganura or Harvest Day in Rwanda is the first Friday in August. Our first Canadian team in Rwanda has so much to be thankful for. We have a great team that bonded quickly so getting 5000 bedkits to the children has been challenging but successful. We have made solid friendships with the Rotarians here. They have supported us by helping with the children, translating, helping the parents, and by providing solid information and crowd control. Thank you!
Thanks to our partners in Rwanda for the laughter that has helped make the distribution lighter and even more joyful!!
Team Rwanda 2023
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
We started our day heading to districts south of Kigali, travelling almost to the Burundi border for our first distribution of the day. When we arrived at the boarding school, the children were patiently waiting for us. Some of the boarding students who attended the school stepped up to help out, even missing their lunch break to make sure we were able to complete the distribution in good time.
Then we were off to the next site where, once again, we were met by the children waiting for our arrival. Sometimes the children are scared or excited, sometimes reserved or unsure, but their smiles are wonderful to see when pictures are taken, just before they happily receive their bedkit. It’s a real joy, as we leave the site, to see the children and their families heading home, bedkits in hand.
Team Rwanda 2023
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
After six days in Rwanda and travelling and working with the Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga members we are learning about some of the unique aspects of this country in East Africa.
Rwanda is called a Country of a 1000 Hills and as we travelled north to the district of Gicumbi the elevation changed from 1400m in Kigali, the largest city in Rwanda (1.25m population), to over 2,200m (7,000’) at our highest distribution point. We were also at one point just 200m from the Uganda border.
Interesting facts about Rwanda:
The government owns the fertile valley land and cooperatives farm this with the able but poor people working the land and paid by the government - in order to produce food for the population. These lands are producing rice, kidney beans, vegetables, tea, bananas and more as well as fish ponds of tilapia and mudfish (bowfin).
Motorcycle taxis are everywhere and you can simply flag one down for transportation.
Trucks, buses, vans and other public vehicles have a governor to limit speed to 60 km/hour - traffic is far less hectic here than in any other country we have visited.
Umuganga is the name of the event that happens the last Saturday in the month and from 8AM to 12AM the population cleans their neighbourhood and contributes to community service if vulnerable, elderly or others need help. This is reflected everywhere we go. This country is clean!
Every second Sunday from 7AM to 11AM Kigali is car-free and the streets are full of people walking, running, biking and playing.
Gender equality: as of 2018, Rwanda ranks in the top five countries for gender equality according to the Global Gender Gap Report - and we see this every day with noticeable leadership by women.
Fascinating country …
Team Rwanda 2023
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
Today was all about the 604 children who received their bedkits. How wonderful that they will have a good night’s sleep on their new mattresses tucked in with the new blankets.
We did manage to have a little fun with them. They loved the squishy balls and giant size clapper. We engaged them while they waited as some of them had travelled very very far to receive these gifts.
It was amazing to see them carrying their mattresses on their heads with smiles that made us proud to be a part of this project.
Thank you SCAW donors.
Team Rwanda 2023
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
Today was another beautiful day in Rwanda and we settled back in our seats to appreciate the amazing scenery on the way to our distribution site. We have really enjoyed visiting with the Rotarians and other volunteers as we travel together or meet at the distributions. It’s quickly becoming apparent what a really good team we have all formed; working well together to put the children at ease, get the pictures taken and then put the bed kits into the children’s hands so they can begin their journey home. Stories and laughter are regularly shared as we get to know one another better.
This has been a wonderful opportunity to work with like-minded volunteers who share the same goal of making life just a little bit easier for these children and their families. That we are having such a fun time while accomplishing that goal is truly an added bonus.
Team Rwanda 2023
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
It was a beautiful morning as we left Kigali and headed north up the mountains to Byumba in the District of Gicumbi. As we left the city our van was stitched amongst hundreds of motorcycles that threaded their way through bumper to bumper cars, huge trucks , endless bicycles, and pedestrians who scurried through the chaos. On our travel up the mountain, we tailed a truck with two young men holding on tightly to the bumper for miles so they didn’t have to peddle (or trudge) the huge milk cans tied on the back of their seats up to villages miles away.
Up and down the mountain we encountered bikes laden with lumber, bananas, grain bags and so much more.
Rwanda is pristine which is shown by women cleaning the roadways with corn husk brooms while other women plant crops on strips of soil along roadways.
The greatest mode of transportation here though is walking! It is free for everyone. Children raced home along the busy roads as we too headed home once again under the safe hands of Jean Claude at the wheel.
Team Rwanda 2023
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
Day 2 started out as a beautiful, sunny day. We were on the road in good time, passing through some amazing farmland. Fields were on hills so steep they could only be farmed using hand tools. We turned off the paved road and onto a clay road, battered and potholed from all the rains endured during the soon-to-be- ending rainy season. An hour and a half later we arrived at our first distribution for today.
Compared to the bumpy ride to get to the site, the distribution went very smoothly. As we were heading to our second distribution, we were surprised to see the children heading home carrying their new bed kits so many kilometres from where they had received them. It was such a clear message of the importance and value of the gift of a bed kit for these children.
Team Rwanda 2023
Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga 🇷🇼 and SCAW 🇨🇦
