On Sunday 27 October, Pete Muir, Trustee at charity GrassRoots Rwanda – a St Michael's Mission Partner – shared an update on the situation in the Shyogwe Diocese and two new areas of need and focus.

Please do watch Pete's short talk here >> Grassroots Rwanda update talk on 27th Oct 2024 - YouTube

Pete shares an update below, with links to project fundraising pages.

Building work SOS

It was a good and interesting visit on my recent trip to the Diocese although I’m sure these visits are getting more arduous - perhaps I’m just getting older! As with many of the visits, it is a bittersweet experience. You see lots of beautiful vistas and talk to lots of beautiful people. You go to church services that last for hours. But the flip side of course is always there. The grinding poverty; the very few opportunities for people to better themselves and some are living in unacceptably poor accommodation.

We visited one archdeacon who was living in a house built by the original missionaries in the 1920s, it is structurally good but needs a complete makeover estimated at around £6,000.  I’ve opened a JustGiving page to collect £2,500 to cover just the bathroom (which interestingly has a bath in it - obviously, with such a shortage of water this needs to be converted to a shower) and the kitchen, which has one old wood-burning stove and no means to prepare food except on the ground. The room was constantly full of smoke.

This is the link for donations to this work, any donation most gratefully received and all used towards this project: https://www.justgiving.com/page/peter-muir-1729605397804

Training for young women

We also met a group of girls who had been subjected to sexual violence. We have previously given them training and a sewing machine so they can make their own clothes, and also make clothes to sell, giving them independence from their abusers. But the Diocese is concerned that without a formal qualification from a training centre they may not be able to sell their clothes to the public. It is a three-month residential course which would cost £250 for each of the girls, so I’ve set up a second JustGiving page for these girls where I hope to raise £2,500 to give all 10 of them a qualification to ensure that they can continue to sell goods and thereby keep themselves safe. 

This is the link for donations to this work, any donation most gratefully received and all used towards this project:

https://www.justgiving.com/page/peter-muir-1729846773707

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For more information about GrassRoots Rwanda, visit their website: GrassRoots Rwanda