Members of the Blessing Group work together to prepare and sell a treat that tastes much like fried dough. Four young men cook each morning, and Giving Hope children work as distributers. The bakers sell their product to Giving Hope members at a reduced rate so they may sell it again in the community for profit. Others also come to their bakery and buy the pastries at the regular higher rate. Proceeds are shared by the Working Group and the bakers.
The Blessing Group leader shared recently that he used to sell Mirra, an illegal substance in many areas, and used the proceeds to purchase alcohol. Now he is a Christian and is a wonderful example to his group.
Read about Nbabu, one of the bakers, who also has two other businesses to support his family.
With three businesses, Nbabu, one of the cooks from the Blessing Group Bakery, is always busy working. He works each day until six in order to provide for the four children who are in his care.
From the bakery, he sells firewood and tends to the chickens in his poultry business. This income provides the secondary school fees for his brother and primary school uniforms for his other siblings. So far he has sold 30 chickens.
Alice Umulisa, a ZOE Social Worker from our Giving Hope Empowerment Project in Rwanda, holds up an example of a Life Dream. Every Giving Hope family is asked to draw a picture of their suffering, fears, hopes, and dreams. Dreams such as these are placed on the walls of each home to help them start thinking and planning for the future.
The girl standing next to Alice had to drop out of school to take care of her siblings when they became orphans. Life has been very difficult. She works hard for food. She does not believe in drawing dreams.
When asked why, she said, “There is no way that I can make my dreams come true, and talking about what makes me sad in the past in frustrating.” She added, “If I have to draw my dream, I will hide it and never share it with anybody.”
Please pray for this young woman and her family to regain hope in their lives as they heal from the trauma of all they have been through. Pray also for Alice as she works daily providing emotional support, encouragement, and training so that children and youth may learn to plan and dream for their future.
Huye District Co-op members working at their coffee plantation.
Six Working Groups have formed a co-op in the Huye District of Rwanda. A total of 87 child-headed families participate. They requested and received about 5.5 acres of land from the government for a coffee plantation and began working together, nurturing coffee seedlings.
A government official assigned to work alongside this ZOE project reports that their harvest in the spring of 2010 will earn around $10,000.
I immediately started doing the math in my mind and got tremendously excited. That meant that beginning in 2010, each family would receive an additional $115 per year. Although that doesn’t sound like much, that is a huge influx of capital for these young people. My mind began imagining the additional seed they could purchase, animals they could obtain, and expansion that would be possible for the income-generating activities in which ZOE has trained the orphans.
The children, however, have a different vision. When I met with them, the Leader of the co-op introduced me to orphans in the community who his Group had identified and “adopted” on their own. This young Leader said, “We will share anything we have.” Then he spoke about the coffee plantation:
“We’ve already decided what we are going to do with the proceeds. Fifty percent will be divided among the families in the co-op. But we are going to use the other fifty percent to assist orphans who are not receiving any support.”
Callixte is a 14 year old boy who became an orphan in 2000 when his mother died.
Callixte and his family
Frequently, he and his siblings went days without food. In desperation, his older brother left to live on the streets. His younger sister also left home, traveling from village to village seeking lodging and food in exchange for work.
Callixte has survived by working for food as well. He is small in stature because hunger has been a constant in his life.
In May 2008, Callixte joined ZOE’s Giving Hope Empowerment Project. He received agricultural training, seeds, hoe, and a grant for an income-generating activity. He has now harvested beans and sweet potatoes and used the grant to purchase two chickens and start a small business selling items such as candy, salt, cookies and soap. His success has led his brother and sister to return home, and Callixte has reintegrated his sister into school.
Not only has he escaped from his life of hunger, but Callixte now shares food with many hungry children in his village. On a recent visit, Epiphanie Mujawimana, the founder of the Giving Hope Empowerment Project, saw nearly 15 children come to Callixte for a meal.
Believing that everything needs to begin with prayer, Adeline offered thanks upon meeting a ZOE team traveling in Rwanda in January 2009. Then she said, “By grace of the Lord, we met Giving Hope. Giving Hope has provided different trainings and goats and taught us to make a dream and set objectives in life.”
Rwandan boy with his family's goats
In 2007, Adeline and her family received one goat from ZOE Ministry. Now they have six! They also have a pig from her Working Group’s Pig Rearing Project and some chickens as well. Adeline’s dream is to have a house and for all of her siblings to go to school.
At age 15, Adeline was almost finished with primary school when her parents died, leaving her to care for her 5 siblings. She says, “life was hard then.” Though they have a small hut for shelter, they are considered homeless because they do not have a Giving Hope house. She also eventually hopes to have more land and a cow.
Adeline enjoys her work with the Ituze Restaurant because she knows it provides hope and care for other orphans in her community.
The president of the Pig Raising Project speaks to a ZOE team.
The President of the Pig Project in Rwanda shared the ways in which the Giving Hope Empowerment Project has impacted their lives during a visit with a January 2009 ZOE Team. He said the most important thing is that they have been given a chance to fight loneliness because Giving Hope encourages them to work together as a team. Through their Working Groups, they love and support each other like family. Together, they help solve their problems and develop business plans.
In 2007, the ZOE Pig Rearing Project began as an income-generating business with 3 adult pigs. Today, the project benefits the many families represented by the leaders in this picture. The project is also now supported at the local government district level, which provides additional pigs. Together, they built a guard house and shelter for the pigs. As new piglets are born, each family receives one. Additional piglets are sold for profit for the whole group to share.
Many members of this ZOE Working Group had to drop out of secondary school to raise their siblings. Their president praised God for all that they have learned and earned through vocational training provided through Giving Hope. They continue to support one another through the struggles to raise money for school fees so that their siblings may stay in school.
The group is also concerned about orphans who are not in the Giving Hope Program. The president said Giving Hope children have clean homes and clean bodies. They work hard to share what they have been given and what they have learned so that orphans outside the program may receive the same blessings they have received.
Orphaned at age 15, Donata was left to raise her four siblings. When their house collapsed, the children moved into a small mud hut with an elderly aunt. Hungry and sleeping in tight quarters on the floor, Donata says she became bitter and lost hope.
When ZOE’s Executive Director Greg Jenks and a team visited Donata in her new home built by ZOE Ministry, she shared her story:
Donata smiles in front of the home being built for her by ZOE.
“I was hopeless. When I met the Giving Hope staff in March, I felt love and began to smile. They asked me to tell my story and gave me hope. It changed my mind, and I started believing God was bringing me good things. I remember when Jean Pierre (a ZOE staff member) said, ‘You have to believe God loves you and will give you what you need if you trust him.’ The Giving Hope staff said that I would get a house, but I didn’t believe them because others had told me that before. Now we are grateful and happy to have this home. Before Giving Hope I thought nobody could love me, and that others were bad. Giving Hope opened my eyes – I could see people giving love. Now, I am committed to giving love, especially to orphans.”
The day she told her story, Donata gave Greg his most-prized possession from Africa, a Kinyarwandan Bible. Moved to tears, the whole team knelt beside her as she poured her heart out to God in praise and thanksgiving.
Donata has hope…not just because she has received a home and vocational training; she has hope because she has come to know the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
ZOE staff member Epiphanie Mujawimana understands the sadness and struggles orphans face each day. From the time she was a small child living in Rwanda, her mother was sick. After her father died when she was nine, Epiphanie’s family lived in extreme poverty. Despite her tender age, Epiphanie was determined to earn enough money to stay in school. Her life was difficult, yet her undying faith in God enabled her to remain hopeful and finish her education.
Epiphanie hugs a child who has received a home through ZOE Ministry.
In 1994, Epiphanie faced another great struggle when Rwanda was decimated by genocide. In 100 days, a total of 800,000 people were killed. Epiphanie and her children became separated from her husband. Each thought the other had died, but miraculously they all survived, although they lost everything they owned.
God has redeemed Epiphanie’s suffering through her work with orphans in Africa. Her understanding of suffering, loss, fear, and uncertainty resonates and connects with the children she sees every day. Her experience of survival and perseverance is now the catalyst for the skills and faith she passes onto the orphans in ZOE’s care.
Jean Damascene of Rwanda was 14 years old when his mother died, leaving him to raise three siblings, including a sister who is disabled. He was unable to successfully farm his land, and their home fell into serious disrepair. Jean and his siblings went hungry most of the time. Later that year, Jean left his family and went to live on the streets. As is the case for street children, Jean survived by eating from garbage. When he was able to find work and make a little money, he purchased drugs or alcohol to numb the pain of his life.
In October of 2007, Jean heard about the ZOE Giving Hope Empowerment Project. He expressed his desire to reunite his family, repair his home, and cultivate his land. Giving Hope training and a grant of seeds enabled Jean to cultivate fields that had gone fallow for several years. By the end of his first harvest, he had lifted his family out of poverty. With a surplus harvest, he had more than enough food. Selling the surplus, Jean was able to roof their home and purchase new doors so his family could have a secure place to live.
Jean Damascene is raising his siblings.
ZOE assisted Jean in a search for his disabled sister whom he hadn’t seen or heard from in four years. She was located through radio and newspaper ads, and he brought her home to personally care for her.
In another important step toward food security and stable income, Jean was able, through ZOE’s training, to meet specific standards defined by the Rwandan government for people in poverty to apply for the grant of a cow. Acquiring the cow, which would provide milk for the family and fertilization for crops, added to Jean’s life-changing experience during the first six months in the Giving Hope program. In this short time, he also had reunited his family, enjoyed a surplus harvest, repaired his home, and had begun building a kitchen as an addition to his house.
Jean Damascene reads from his Bible
Jean accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and was baptized in March 2008. He takes great joy in sharing how Christ has transformed his life. He read this scripture from the Gospel of Matthew to a ZOE team visiting his home:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:25)
Jean’s Giving Hope Tour
On November 7, Jean arrived in North Carolina to begin a five-state, two-week tour raising awareness and financial support for ZOE Ministry. Epiphanie Mujawimana, the founder of ZOE’s Giving Hope Empowerment Project, traveled to the United States with Jean to serve as his interpreter as he told the story of this program that helped Jean bring himself and his siblings out of poverty.
Jean shared that he spent three days fasting and praying before he arrived in North Carolina. He prayed for a safe journey and to be faithful to God’s purposes for him during his travels. Everywhere he went during his time with us, people were talking about the economic crisis in the United States.
A stranger to the English language and our economic troubles, Jean told his difficult life story and remarked over and over again: “Can you believe how rich I am now?”
He also said that his Giving Hope Working Group in Rwanda will be donating half of the proceeds from each of their coffee harvests to care for other orphans in his community. All were inspired by Jean’s great faith and the way in which his life enriches our understanding of God’s economy of Love.
Jean and Epiphanie touched the lives of more than 9,000 people in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, and Texas. Jean said he had the time of his life, but his greatest joy comes from knowing that his trip will help children who need the same love and support he received from ZOE.
The equivalent of 80 US dollars enabled Jean to lift himself and his family out of poverty.
Enjoy the video of Jean’s visit on this page and visit Give Hope to see all the ways in which you can join Jean in making a difference in the live of orphans and vulnerable children in Africa.
Members of the Blessing Group work together to prepare and sell a treat that tastes much like fried dough. Four young men cook each morning, and Giving Hope children work as distributers. The bakers sell their product to Giving Hope members at a reduced rate so they may sell it again in the community for profit. Others also come to their bakery and buy the pastries at the regular higher rate. Proceeds are shared by the Working Group and the bakers.
With three businesses, Nbabu, one of the cooks from the 
Alice Umulisa, a ZOE Social Worker from our Giving Hope Empowerment Project in Rwanda, holds up an example of a Life Dream. Every Giving Hope family is asked to draw a picture of their suffering, fears, hopes, and dreams. Dreams such as these are placed on the walls of each home to help them start thinking and planning for the future.
