The Beacon Program is progressing rapidly with the original group of 10 women being enlarged to 20.  We are ready now to move from a pilot project to one encompassing all of the eastern providence of Rwanda.  The original group has elected officers, opened a bank account, appointed an audit committee and opened a small store.  They have sold their original gift K-Lights and have begun ordering new units.  They are helping with establishment and education of the new groups of women.

1. Sensitization and mobilization of women in Nyarugenge was done the last week of June 09

2. The First meeting with the 10 selected women was held on 06.07.09. One man among local authorities I talked to participated in the meeting. All agreed to be part of the program and form a cooperative for the Beacon program.

3. The initial one day training workshop is planned for 15.07.09. URUMURI Company and a micro finance company will present their programs in relation to the Beacon program and how they will work with the women.

4. After the workshop an initial grant solar-powered lanterns will start

5. I will monitor the progress and advise women as requested

6. The Second meeting to evaluate the progress is planned for 25.07.09

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We soon hope to have several hundred women enrolled.

Dale

The last couple of days, of course, are the busiest, trying to finish all the details that had been put off for two weeks.We met with the Education Minister, who is quite enthusiastic about the K-Light, especially now that we have a cell phone charger that works off the light. It means that people living or teaching in areas lacking electricity now have the ability to communicate. Also, the health department will be issuing the package of K-Light, charger and cell phone to its health workers. This allows them to send in health data on a daily basis and will enable the department to start gathering statistics and plan better distribution of medical care.

The Foundation did a major overhaul of its Beacon Program. We had several non-governmental organizations that wanted to do the program last year. The problem is that they wanted to control the funds – paying the women that they decided. Koinonia has several non-negotiable conditions and one is that the women handle their own funds. This visit we formed our own cooperative and hired our own full-time employee, Beata. She will organize the women into working groups of 7-10. Each woman is given 6 free K-Lights, which she can sell and then come back to the Rwandan company, Murika, and purchase more at a discount.

On the last day, the Methodist Church presented me with a beaded staff for moral leadership, etc. I also bought a hat made entirely of wood that I can use here for golf.

Got a permanent visa and opened a bank account for PiSAT. Each took several visits. We met with the Minister of Education this AM. He is quite enthusiastic about the K-Light. We are also revamping the Beacon Program and hired a permanent representative, Beata, who will be setting up our own cooperative and enlisting women in business.

We received the sample cell phone chargers yesterday. They work and make the K-Light much more attractive to the Education Department and telephone company.

Am beginning to think about the trip home.

I told the crew with me that it should be over at 11:00 since the service begins at 9:00. At 11:15 the choir finally ended their singing and the first collection had been taken. Then Marc and the local pastor gave sermons. We finally arrived back in Kigali in late afternoon, 8 hours after leaving.

Today we will be visiting the Memorial where they are starting an education program and want to talk with us. This is only 35 minutes away.

Everyone is doing well. Brennan is eating well. Durrell is working hard with the pictures on his computer. Zach has taken a ton of pictures. The first batch of 500 has been whittled down to 200. He likes to take pictures of the countryside and we already have enough of those.

We hired a woman to work for the Foundation here in Rwanda. Everything is pretty much on schedule. Lambert has missed a couple of meetings because his little boy has been running a fever, but it is better now.

Saturday is a rest day for most of us. Durrell, Bud, Zach, and Brennan have gone to the game refuge to see the animals.

Tomorrow, we go out to one of Rev. Marc’s churches – a 90-minute drive. Better than yesterday. it was three hours, the last two on dirt roads.

Met with the Clinton people again, interviewed three women for the Koinonia position here in Rwanda, met with an embassy person, worked on two bids for solar installation, and registered the Foundation.

Today, everyone except Bill and me went to visit the schools. We walked downtown to check out the equipment. Actually, it was uptown, 2 miles, all uphill. It’s the first time I had to rest during a walk. The good part was that the walk back was easy.

Bud, Brennan, and Zach played golf yesterday. Then Andrew (Rwandan Andrew) took them with his two sons around the town. They got to go out at night, like to a pizza place, while we continued with the meeting.

Everything is going well. Bill is training Gilbert how to estimate solar installation cost.

Sunday, we rested and in the afternoon went to a reception for Lambert’s daughter. It was her first communion. Nice people, and we made new friends.

Much busier on Monday. In AM, visited with the Clinton Foundation people. We had some similar ideas and will meet again on Wednesday. Spent the rest of the day getting the paperwork done to bid on a solar system for a small branch bank. In the evening, we had dinner with the two men from Kenya who want to be the distributor in Kenya. Will try them out.

Today, have to get the Foundation officially registered with the government and then pick Bill up at noon.

Boys are getting bored, but we will be finishing the installation at Shyara School and will put them to work.

Light in the darkness!!

Dear all,

Once again thank you so much for the solar lantern and our apologies for taking so long to distribute for several reasons, I was traveling around all over since January and then the need around Panzi Hospital was so huge that Dr. Mukwege was a little worried to create more frustration for the ones who will not be served. We decided to target the most needed person and a month ago, a “camp” was created for soldiers’ wives and children next to the hospital, more than 300 women, children and babies were just abandoned with NO AID at all, no food, no water, no medicine, etc… so we started the distribution there and today we went there with Eve, Susan and Dr. Mukwege and they were so thankful and so proud of their solar lanterns that they said we brought “light in the darkness”, the only thing they received were the lanterns since they were there.

We also distributed some to 30 other families, surrounding directly the hospital, and other groups like small medical centers, schools are targeted and lanterns will be distributed next week.

In the name of all the beneficiaries, I would like to thank you for caring and for the precious help.

Christine

We will be gone for two weeks. I hate the trip but enjoy the visit. Rwanda is a beautiful country.