Christine, Survivor & Mother of 4 Needs our Help

Want to join us in making a difference? Many of you know we started Foundation Rwanda  (FR) in 2007 to empower women survivors of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and their children born of rape through education, counseling and medical support. Christine, a forty-nine-year-old survivor and FR mother of four has seen some of the darkest days imaginable and desperately needs our help. Our Rwandan colleagues have done everything they can in Rwanda to support her immediate needs and are at a loss of where to turn next especially during the challenges she and her children are facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is her story (which she has given us full permission to share).

 

Christine was twenty-two years old during the genocide and was raped repeatedly by countless men resulting in a broken back leaving her in chronic pain. She has carried on bravely in the face of a failed spinal surgery resulting in sciatic nerve damage, severe pain and paralysis for a year. Christine has been unable to work and has struggled in the darkness of total poverty. At one point, the only safe accommodation she could find for her family was in a neighbor’s outhouse where she filled the toilet hole with dirt and covered the latrine so she could lay a small mattress for her and four children to sleep at night. As a family of five, they slept in the outhouse for a year until it collapsed during the rainy season (while they were in it) and they became homeless.

 

In 2014, FR received a grant from Together Women Rise for our community counseling program and were able to enroll Christine in the program. She says that is when her healing journey started. Today, Christine spends most of her time laying down and needs constant help. As there are no social services in Rwanda for women like Christine, she and her children rely on the kindness of individuals and support from NGOs for food and shelter. FR is currently providing mental health counseling and emergency food supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic and our local partner organization, Survivors Fund  (SURF) has provided her rent for a temporary place to stay.

 

Christine’s dream in life is to have a safe place to call home for her children. “I have been running from house to house with this broken spine and my children for 27 years. My health situation is in great danger. But I am afraid to die because I am worried my children would go on the street if I die.”

 

We are looking to help Christine raise $25,000. This would enable the FR and SURF teams to work with the community to  build a modest home on a small plot of land with a small garden to grow food for her family year-round in the Rwandan countryside.  All funds raised will go toward the cost of relocating Christine and her children permanently to a  new home, to support her continued medical care and immediate needs for her children.  Any additional funds will go to support those Foundation Rwanda families most in need. 

 

When Christine’s children heard we were launching this campaign, they said if they ever have a house to call their own, the very first night, they plan to play happy music and dance until the sun comes up! Please join us in helping to make Christine’s wish come true and giving her kids something to dance about! Every dollar will make a significant difference! All funds will be collected and dispersed by Foundation Rwanda and are tax-deductible under the US not-for-profit 501(c)3 charity status, Tax ID #11-3837036.

 

We greatly appreciate your support for this very special FR Mama! Just knowing we are launching this campaign on her behalf has given her great hope.

 

Jules Shell, Sam Munderere, Liliane Umuhoza, Jonathan Torgovnik, Emilienne Kambibi, Raban Havugimana, David Russell, Sara Solfanelli, Dan Kusnetz, Mike Gordon, Kelly Briggs, Eileen Quast, Joan Shell, Ruth Schlossberg, Pia and Rob Cone, Eric, Dash & Luca Bonabeau, Liam Dempsey, Natalie Gelb, Meredith Bradshaw, Linda Trau, & BreAnn Whiat

The Foundation Rwanda Team/Family + Christine's Champions