Komera Project
The Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury District has set up a project to support work in Rwanda in the aftermath of the genocide of 1994. In the language of Rwanda, Kinyarwanda, the word Komera is the word you might say if you were helping up, a person who had fallen down. We hope to give a "lift" for at least some of those who live in Rwanda, one of the poorest countries of the world, which so recently has suffered one of the worst genocides of the twentieth century.
Rwanda is a landlocked country, sharing borders with Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the south and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. About 60% of the population lie below the poverty line; over 80% have less than $2 a day to live on.
In the District we have two Rwandan ministers, serving in Stour Valley and Walsall: we are receiving much from Rwanda already and the project hopes to allow us to gain much more as we develop relationships with the Free Methodist Church of Rwanda. At the same time we hope to contribute a little too.
The objectives, and progress made, are:
- to raise awareness about the issues facing the Rwandan people as a result of the genocide. A group of young people and leaders from the district are spending three weeks in Rwanda. Two of our young people, Emma (participant) and Lucy (leader), recently went on this trip. You can read more about this on the trip blog.
- to raise the funds to build an isolation ward for the Kibogora Hospital, near the shores of Lake Kivu in the southwest. It will cost £25,000. Revd. John Howard, the district chair, has been there in April-May 2007 and seen with his own eyes how desperately it is needed.The money for this part of the project has now been raised.
- to provide better facilities at PHARP, the Centre for Peace, Healing and Reconciliation, in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. £5000 has been sent to PHARP. Now that the money for the isolation ward has been raised, the focus of the Komera project is on PHARP,
Already, much has been done to raise money across the district. Sarah Timms from Admaston Methodist Church finished walking from Lands End to John O’Groats on August 27, 2007. As she walked people responded to the request for donations fastened to her rucksack! A profit of £1200 has also been made on the sale of CDs of devotional material.
In our own circuit, various activities have been organised, including a supper at Beckminster on 17 November 2007; karaoke hymn singing morning at Cranmer on 24 November 2007 and a church family lunch at Wombourne on Sunday, 20 January 2008. At Springdale, the collection from the Welcome Service of Revd. Robert Ely in September 2007 raised £270 for the project. A quiz was held at Springdale on 19 April 2008 which raised £336 towards the cost of Lucy and Emma's places on the district trip to Kibogora and PHARP.
(with thanks to Revd. John Howard and Brenda Shuttleworth for updated information)
Some of you may be wondering whether the earthquake (magnitude 5.9) on 3 February 2008 affected the hospital, which is close to the epicentre. The map (right, Credit: US Geological Survey) shows the intensity of the shaking across the region. There was no structural damage at Kibogora itself, although a Free Methodist church collapsed and others were damaged. A number of patients were admitted to the hospital at Kibogora and two doctors from the hospital travelled to a hospital further south to help with more severely injured patients there.
