Tony & Serena Morones are founders of Speak Rwanda and are actively involved in the lives of many Rwandans through ministry and business. They live and work in Portland, Oregon.
This is the third in a series of three short shout-outs this week about individuals or groups who are actively doing good works in Rwanda. Each of the groups has become a Speak Rwanda friend in the last week making use of our Kinyarwanda travel language materials.
Hope for a Thousand Hills is a non-profit initiative focused on the restoration of the Cyimbili Coffee Plantation in western Rwanda. The project aims to rehabilitate a once productive plantation, and through it rebuild the local economy. The transformation will carry over into necessary community development projects which include: providing clean water, sanitary systems and electrical power generation to meet the urgent needs of a people, and to bring healing and hope to those who long for reconciliation with their neighbor… and their Creator.
Cyimbili’s lush green hills on the shores of Lake Kivu are breathtaking. The people who live in those hills grabbed hold of my heart. However, for their lives to change for the better, three things need to happen. Relief: The people need clean running water, electricity, and a functioning, safe sanitation system to reduce the risk of disease and other potential health crises. Restoration: Dilapidated buildings, inaccessible roads, and spent coffee trees need to be replaced, fixed, and renewed. This plantation has incredible potential to help the lives of its community, but it can’t reach that potential until it is restored. Renewal: As I listened to the young people who crowded around us, they spoke of the need to know–”really know”–that God has a good purpose and a plan for their lives and that He has not forgotten them. They need new hope.
–Jamie Longo, Founder
We all look forward to seeing the progress in this coffee community.
–Diana Dettwyler Speak Rwanda Web Admin
Fulbright scholar, Diana Perdue, is having the adventure of her life right now in Kigali. Her blog, Rwanda Reflections chronicles her teaching and living adventures in Kigali Rwanda. Speak Rwanda has become “Facebook pen-pals” with her for several months now and I always look forward to reading the latest about life in Kigali.
The Point Foundation is a charity based in the UK whose mission is to support orphans. The objective of the Foundation is to raise sufficient funding to bring love, care, compassion and education to transform the lives of orphaned children around the world, but principally in Africa, from birth to 18 years of age.
“Five years ago we started privately funding a school we came across in a community near Phinda Game Reserve, Kwala Zulu Natal…but it was on a business visit to Rwanda that my husband Charlie came across the Noel Orphanage, when he visited the Pfunda tea plantantion nearby…and was so heartbroken by the plight of the 700 orphans he pledged to help them there and then, and so we offcially set up and registered the Point Foundation.”
Today the Foundation raises funds and provides on the ground support for 5 major projects helping around 2500 children, most of whom are orphaned and live in institutions.
Visit The Point Foundation website and fall in love with these beautiful children!
http://www.pointfoundation.co.uk/index.html
We continue to be amazed at the acts of charity from individuals all over the world who have become Speak Rwanda friends. Every week I read about teams traveling to Rwanda, or organizations founded to care for orphans. This week, I had the privilege of meeting (virtually) three different groups whose stories I’d like to highlight here.
Grace Rwanda society was founded by 2 Rwandan Genocide survivors, Elizabeth Johnson and Marie Louise Kaligirwa. Elizabeth and Marie now devote their lives to rebuild and restore the hope and future of Rwanda through its children, youth and communities.
Their current project is to rebuild a school and recreational facility, which will give the children in the community of Rwinkwavu a chance to enhance their educational experience.
One of most exciting things about Speak Rwanda is the new friends we’ve begun to make through the development and release of Speak Rwanda Basic, the Kinyarwanda travel language audio download lessons. What we are beginning to realize is that there are incredible stories of faith and love being written between the lives of Rwandans and ourselves here in the States.
One new friend is Michelle Schmidt who is traveling for the first time to Rwanda today June 17, 2009 with a group from her church as well as individuals from around the region. She’s the official trip blogger for the team and is a gifted writer. Michelle also possesses a unique God-given, heartfelt love for Rwanda and her new friends there.
Check out both of her blogs to see and hear how the team is getting along as well as her story regarding Rwanda.
I have to confess that trying to learn Kinyarwanda makes me feel dumb!
Kinyarwanda is a really hard language!!!
Let’s just confess this problem and get it out of the way right now. So
if practicing Kinyarwanda makes you feel not very smart, you are not
alone!!! But stick with it!
I got A’s in college using flash cards, so I made a set of flash cards
using 200 words from our 1,000 word Kinyarwanda dictionary that we are
about to publish. I’ve been using these flash cards the past two days,
and I’ve already added about 10 words to my vocabulary.
I am very excited to announce the release of the Basic Series of Speak Rwanda audio lessons! The Kinyarwanda language lessons are now available to download from our website.
While we’ve kept a little quiet about release of these lessons (while we work out a few bugs), I have already met some wonderful people who are changing lives in Rwanda.
This week I met Megan Swanson from Seattle. Megan is determined to learn Kinyarwanda, and immediately wanted the Advanced version, not Basic. I could tell right away that she’s very committed to Rwanda. Megan shared a little of her story with me…
“My involvement in Rwanda started last summer when I did an internship there with a Rwandan church. Through that opportunity, I learned about the plight of street children and after developing strong relationships with several street boys and Rwandan leaders who wanted to impact this situation, we decided we had to do something together. We now operate a children’s home for 11 street boys, and have rescued 8 kids out of jail. Our website is www.hopeforlifeministry.org . I’m going back to Rwanda for 6-12 months in November so I am always looking for resources to better learn the language before I go again!”
Wow! Way to go Megan! I wish you the best in learning Kinyarwanda and also with raising money for your ministry. I hope someone sees this post and decides to donate!
I look forward to hearing every story of why someone wants to learn Kinyarwanda!
The founders of Speak Rwanda, Serena & Tony Morones are pleased to release the first version of the travel language book & companion audio set to a group of George Fox students who are planning a trip to Rwanda in May 2009.
The group plans to learn basic Kinyarwanda travel phrases enabling them to have a richer experience in this African country.
When the official website is up and running, visitors will be able to purchase two versions of the guidebook with audio, Speak Now and Speak More.
Visitors to the site will also be able to listen to a free lesson in Kinyarwanda and learn some basic greetings.
The lessons and audio recordings are a collaboration between native Rwandan, Enric Sifa and linguist, Lara Messersmith-Glavin, and directed by project founder Serena Morones.
