ATN-Rwanda» Family & Community Development

Peace House Opened

Chris Shelby — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:10:10 +0000

Peace House Ministries opened its first transition house for boys living on the streets on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. It opened with five boys, there are now 7, who God literally brought to us after we began praying about working with children living on the streets. The goal of this phase is to provide a peaceful and loving place for boys to come to in the hopes of placing them back in school and, ultimately, re-integrating them into their families of origin or into stable long term placements. The boys will remain in our “Peace and Love” House (they named it!) for 6-12 months. During that time, the boys will be given food, shelter, clothing, an opportunity to go back to school, and encouragement as we help them deal with the issues that placed them on the streets. The boys will also be expected to work, by doing their part in the home and participating in our various agricultural projects which will help us create a sustainable program. We will also work directly with the families of the boys who have them in hopes that we can help create solutions together for the problems that forced the boys to the streets in the first place. This is a crucial component to this phase of our project.

Comfort Those Who Live Alone

Charles Kabeza — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Since 1995, the month of April has been a period of commemorating of the genocide. It is really tough for Rwandans, especially those who lost their parents, friends, and relatives in genocide. Today, most of the Xtra Mile members are survivors of the genocide. Normally they would take time to mourn and visit their places of origin, but they devoted their time to visit and comfort and pray for other orphans who do live alone.

The main message we shared was to focus on what and whom God blessed them to survive with, not only what they lost. In addition we reminded them that God decided to be the father of the fatherless.

Xtra Mile Ministries visited 19 different zones at 11 districts which 5 were new. With that many places it would not be possible for every member of the Xtra Mile community to get involved. So, we divided into teams made up of at least three people.

The activities were; to testify how far God is taking us from, share about word of God which is from Luke8:19-21, Mark12:28-30, also we shared about Xtra Mile vision and values and then enjoyed refreshments together.

Some of these trips were not easy! People had to walk in the rain, with limited food and water. But God made all of us sanctified and strong to survive those trips.

For every place we went, God blessed us to be very welcomed. Most of the time we met the orphans at sector office buildings, and some times the sector authorities attended the meetings.

We were impressed how people want to spread the Xtra Mile message. Normally, if an organization or ministry gets in a place people intend to keep every thing to themselves, not share with others. But God did the opposite for Xtra Mile. We saw many of examples of orphans who wanted to join us as we walked many miles without expecting monetary return but loving and blessing others.

During the last trips Xtra mile was blessed to meet over 1000 orphans and to make new contacts with several local leaders.

We are very excited for our life to be tools which God uses to restore Rwanda.

- Charles Kabeza

3 New Ladies Begin Sewing Project

Nancy Shewmaker — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 10:40:55 +0000

During February, the women’s quilting class continued with renewed enthusiasm, as three new women were accepted into the program. After just 2 weeks with the new ladies, it was observed that they are determined, resourceful and dedicated to the task of improving their sewing skills. As with the Intermediate class, it is a constant exercise of training in precision measuring, cutting and sewing, since the outcome of their efforts should be considered something quite attractive and well-done, the ultimate goal being to produce articles which would be of higher value to future customers.

The new women are determined to be able to provide for their children. Antoinette is the mother of twins who are six months old. Both Donatilla and Severina are caring for their own children as well as additional orphans.

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Taekwondo Club Trainings

Marty Koonce — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:59:16 +0000

We continued with our development of a national Taekwondo team and a Taekwondo federation for Rwanda this month. We were able to host four practices at the Belgian School and trained the clubs from Kigali as well as Butare. They continue to work on their registrations with the Ministry of Sports and after the completion of this will be able to apply to the Olympic Committee of Rwanda for federation status. This will link them to the World Taekwondo Federation and allow them to compete internationally on behalf of Rwanda.

Pictured is Marty with Lee Yong, the Ugandan Taekwondo Federation National Coach.

Sports League Preparations

Chris Shelby — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:48:53 +0000

ATN began preparations for the upcoming youth football tournament. We met with school officials, coaches, and others to prepare for a kids football tournament which will launch in May. The tournament will be called the ATN Peace Cup and will help promote peace and unity among the people of Rwanda.

In addition, ATN coordinated a sports equipment drive in America to help us launch our sports program here at ATN. We are partnering with two schools in Texas to raise equipment, uniforms, and shoes for our sports league.

Taekwondo Trainings

Marty Koonce — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:31:10 +0000

The work of ATN with the Rwandan Taekwondo Athletes continued in the month of January with three training sessions held at Ecole Belge with an average of ten athletes attending each session. Martin Koonce was able to implement the training techniques used by the Ugandan Taekwondo Federation in beginning the preparation for the athletes for the East African Taekwondo Championships in March. The top athletes are beginning to show great unity as a group and are advancing in both skills and theory. They have nearly completed the process with the Ministry of Sports in registering the three main clubs. After this they will pursue Federation status with the Olympic Committee of Rwanda.

Intermediate Quilting Course

Nancy Shewmaker — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 10:53:22 +0000

The Intermediate Level Quilting Course has now opened, with the same women who successfully completed the 2009 Beginning Quilting Course. This time, the women are busy making placemats and table runners so they can show their skills and produce an attractive marketable product. This takes time, and with a program that only runs 2 hours a day, most of the women who have sewing machines at home are taking their work home with them and continuing to work. They are determined to produce something unique for Rwanda.

This time they are using donated fabric, which someone in California sent to them. It is small samples of upholstery and decorating fabrics, so they are trying hard to come up with ideas of small items to construct with these beautiful fabrics. We will also use African fabrics, as we believe there is a market for these as well.

Sport’s Camps in Kicukiro

Chris Shelby — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:38:40 +0000

This month ATN hosted two free sports camps for the youth in Kicukiro District. We conducted a week off football training for 4 hours a day and conducted a week of basketball training for 2 hours a day. Our program served approximately 150 student athletes, boys and girls, in our district, from the ages of 10-18
years.

We also hired two Rwandan coaches to assist with running our camps. Partnering with two local schools, St, Joseph Primary School and St. Patrick Secondary School, we were able to offer the youth in our district a quality camp experience.

Our basketball camp ended up merging with a camp being run by the Rwanda Basketball Federation at St. Patrick due to limited court space. When our two camps merged, we worked with over 70 basketball players. At the end of our camps, we hosted a reception for the participants at our facilities at ATN. We invited them and their families to joun us as we introduced
ourselves at ATN and asked for their input on how we can best serve the youth in our community. We had over 150 people attend our reception.

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Ugandan Coaches Train Rwandans

Marty Koonce — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:27:42 +0000

December was an exciting month for Taekwondo in Rwanda as two master coaches and the women’s national champion arrived for a weekend of training at Ecole Belge for the top Taekwondo athletes of Rwanda. The athletes trained for a total of eight hours from Friday afternoon until Saturday afternoon. Training, technical movements, and preparation for Olympic style competitions were covered extensively. Twenty one athletes attended including Rwanda’s first woman Taekwondo practitioner. There was good media coverage from Radio Rwanda, Igihe, and Izuba. It was a good way to start the preparation for competition.

Taedwondo Registration Planning

Marty Koonce — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:37:06 +0000

This month Martin Koonce held another training session, attended by twenty of Rwanda’s top Taekwondo athletes where we discussed the proper steps for registration with the ministry of sports; the steps required to begin the Taekwondo Federation of Rwanda; and new techniques learned by Martin while in Uganda. There was great excitement generated in preparation for the arrival of the masters from Uganda in December.