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Many
people will think of Rwanda as the country of the 1994 genocide. These events
were horrific and people are still deeply traumatised by what happened. In 100
days more than 800,000 people died and it was not possible for people who lived
in Rwanda at that time to avoid the horror. North-west Rwanda continued to be terrorised until 1999 by Interahamwe militia who came over the border from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Property was burned, buildings looted and destroyed. Shyira
is a small, remote community in the hills of north-west Rwanda. During the
troubled times its hospital and schools were severely damaged. Indeed, the
damage to the foundations of the maternity hospital was so serious that it had
to be closed and its facilities were transferred to the main hospital, displacing
some other services. The re-building of the maternity hospital is being supported by various organisations including St Luke’s Church, Formby and is now nearing completion. The Formby Rotary Club has now decided to support Shyira as its main project to commemorate the centenary of the founding of Rotary movement in 1905. The Club is to raise funds to help provide equipment for the new maternity hospital in the first instance. Other possible projects are providing teaching aids, desks and library material for the Shyira primary school and supporting programmes for helping young people to reduce their poverty, for example, by providing tools for use during carpentry courses. By completing my trip, I hope to be able to help in this work, and raise additional funding for the project. If you would like to sponsor me, please use the link on the left to print off the sponsor form on the following page, and send it to the Rotary Club of Formby, at the address shown on the form. Thank you.
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