Women's Sponsorship Program

We are starting a new sponsorship program for women. For a 12 month $30/month commitment you will sponsor at-risk/vulnerable Rwandan woman giving her one-on-one mentoring experience to better herself in business and life. It may be starting a sewing, craft, farming or goat business...whatever best meets her needs. You will receive photos and stories of her progress. We will be working hand-in-hand with the local government helping widows and at-risk women.

Many women in our neighborhood do not have the opportunities that men have. Some are widowed from the genocide, others are neglected or abused. It is City of Joy's mission to reach out to these women and give them the hope of Jesus.

Gifts are tax deductible if given through our sponsoring church. Make checks payable to:

Living Hope Community Church
7925A N. Oracle #376
Tucson, AZ 85704

Enclose on a separate piece of paper "Todd and Andria- Women of Rwanda Sponsorships".

Or if you would rather donate through paypal (not tax deductible) you can donate with the paypal button located on this blog's home page. Please write a note "Women of Rwanda Sponsorships" on the last page of the paypal donation.

Two steps forward three? steps back

Trying to function as a nonprofit in Rwanda has it's challenges. The other day we met with the Land Developer for the District Government. We had done everything asked of us when it comes to negotiating privately with our neighbors to buy their land. John and Emmy (along with other government workers) had met three times over 2 months. When finally asked about price it was apparent that their idea of the value of their property wasn't in line with the actual value.

So the next step would be to get the government involved to set the price and to help residents move. The process is called expropriation. Land/house owners would receive less than what we would give them privately but it seemed to be the only option left. So we met with the Land Development guy expecting to get guidance of the next step in expropriation. Instead, we heard that they want us to continue to negotiate privately. The District wants us to write a letter to the Mayor and get his support. The District would then help us negotiate privately.

The only bright spot in this next step is if we can get the Mayor's approval. If we can obtain his support he can make sure that a fair price is given to landowners and that expropriation can be avoided. In reflection from our Thursday meeting I think everyone at the District would like to avoid the "work" of expropriation. If they really want City of Joy to succeed, like they say they would, then we will need the entire communities support.

Another option our Board talked about was the possibility of moving our project to another government chosen site. This would not be ideal but is an option. The District originally had a spot that they recommended to us that was in dire need of a school. We will keep praying that we are in line with God's timing and plan!

Architect

Today we are heading into Kigali. We need to develop a master plan of City of Joy. I really don't know what to expect. Pastor John recommended this architect. The builder, Alex, that Pastor John's wife Robyn used to build their school will also be at the meeting. The big question is cost. I am hoping the architect can do a sketch of City of Joy without much time or cost.

When you think of all the components: church, private Christian boarding school, university, vocational training center, sports center, medical clinic, community center...these all need room to be built and to grow.

Electricity & Land Update

On Friday John and Emmy (along with the Cell Leader, Josine) met with the landowners. We had meetings with nine landowners for the past 3 months and this was suppose to be the big "price negotiating" meeting. It ended up falling flat as landowners wanted unreasonable amounts for their property. Our mission center needs around 10 acres for the first phase of the school. It was clear that instead of negotiating privately we need to do the "official" expropriation that the government sets forth. Using the government method we will be able to have a set price/square meter and everyone will receive the same pricing. So we are in the process of finding an architect who can draw up a master plan of our mission center. Once we have all of our documents ready we submit them to the District who will then help us buy land.

Before the meeting started we had a visitors from Kigali and Ruhungo. These were executives from the power company. They came to survey our project to see if it qualifies for a special program to bring electricity to rural areas. The good news of the day is that it looks like we will qualify and that we potentially could have electricity by the end of the year!

Hope 4 Women/Dress a Girl Around the World

Rachel Eggum Cinader sent me this message: "We are planning to do a Rwanda/Uganda trip in April of 2012--I'll be promoting it to my sewing friends at CCOJ. Hope 4 Women/Dress a Girl want to commit to raising the $10,000 for the sewing/community center and we will also sponsor women."

What joy this bought us today! Hope 4 Women is a division of www.Hope4Kidsinternational.org with Tom Eggum. We are very excited about our future partnership with Rachel and Tom.

Praise Report

We are excited about all that God is doing in Rwanda. Yesterday Emmy and John met with local land owners and convinced them to sell part of their property to City of Joy's school project! This has been a three month negotiation and convincing. We hope to have a price for the land by next week and shortly after that make the purchase. This will give us enough property to start the primary school. Please pray for a fair price for the land!

John Kayitare's wife, Hope, is starting her fourth year of a finance degree. She should be able to get a job at a bank next year. Hope has been receiving funding from an outside source. Abruptly those funds were taken from her this fall. She was in desperate need! The money is due August 20th.

Kids Play International, Tracy Evans, stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park! Tracy heard of Hope's need and went to action. Tracy was able to raise the money needed ($882) for the first of two semesters in less than a week. Tracy hopes to have the rest of the money for the second semester raised too. God is so good. He is good all the time!

This is Africa

Yesterday our business manager, Emmy, and I traveled into Kigali (1:45min) to first pick up our nonprofit document that was signed and to meet with the electric company about getting power to our house and projects. Our meeting with the electric company went from one office to another. Finally we were directed to the office across town for the program called-Rural Roll Out Program. The Program has criteria that must be met (i.e. distance to nearest power lines, number of potential customers...) if those criteria are met we then qualify for a significant discount off the $250,000 quote that we have already received. The frustrating part is that it has taken 11 months to finally be directed to the correct department. We now will resubmit an application to this department and see if we qualify.

Between traveling to the different offices we decided to stop and pick up our nonprofit documents. We arrived at the Ministry of Justice Department and were told that the document was not ready. I reminded the woman that she had just called us yesterday to tell us we could pick it up. She told us to come back in one hour and it would be ready. So long story, somewhat short, we did receive our documents! We now need to submit them to be published in a Gazette for $400...THEN we will be an official NGO (nongovernment organization)!