Life in Rwanda is rapidly changing yet, compared with the comfortable West, it is still desperately hard especially in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. The Grassroots Rwanda Trust supports the work of The Episcopal Church of Rwanda in Shyogwe Diocese.
The Trust aims to give a hand up, not a hand out: although giving aid is at times needed, they seek to help fund life-transforming projects like health clinics and schools.
They work through the Anglican Church in Rwanda also helping with churches (repairs and teaching) and the Bible and Development School.
Many of these girls have no parents to show them how to look after their babies and so these projects are vital.
Clementine (right) would like to set up a new project in a particularly poor area to help the very vulnerable young mothers there.
The Mothers Union also encourage the mums to form co-operatives to sustain themselves and once the babies become toddlers they train them to provide nursery education. In this way help is given to present and future generations.
Members of St Michael’s knitted clothes and toys for these children.
Following the 1994 genocide, three quarters of the population in that parish alone were widows and orphans – the needs of the people were great. David Dale visited Shyogwe Diocese for the first time in April 1999 and immediately recognised that funds raised in the UK could go a long way to helping a people so traumatised by the genocide.
The David Dale Shyogwe Trust came into being and over the years has grown – both in numbers of supporters and in the numbers of Rwandans supported. It was rebranded as GrassRoots Rwanda in 2018.
Over the past five years, over £200,000 has been raised. Canon David Dale, former Commissary to Bishop Jered, is now retired but makes the occasional visit to Shyogwe Diocese and maintains a keen interest in the Trust. He is invaluable in his knowledge of the people and their family history and of a culture so different to that of the UK.
Each year, one or more of the Trustees travel to Shyogwe Diocese thereby maintaining personal links with those whom we aim to support.
These visits are self-funded and we seek to:
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St Michael and All Angels is part of the Diocese of Gloucester and The Church of England