Blog Post

Shaki opens its doors for business!

Kelly Owen • 22 March 2019

After a long, and at times tortuous wait, the maternity unit at Shaki is finally open.

Shaki is in a remote part of the diocese, and we can't underscore often enough how important this is. I last visited in 2015 at a time when the unit was still closed. I asked what would happen if a woman had complications during birth, and was told that they would call an ambulance to take her the 3-hour drive to the nearest hospital at Kabgay. Now, I know the state of ambulances in rural Rwanda - and they are not all parked up, nearby and ready! So I asked what would happen if the ambulance was not available, then they said it would a Rwandan ambulance - 4 men and a stretcher - that would walk to the hospital, a trip lasting 8 hours. The woman sometimes didn't make it. So, to have a maternity unit there manned by trained midwives is a real blessing to that rural community.

We want to give heartfelt thanks to the generous sponsors to made this possible. They have literally been a life saver.

We have also taken funds from general funds to pay for equipment, and taken out knitted clothes for the first babies to be born.

The maternity unit has been built beside a small health post - not much more than a dispensary really - and the plan is to have a fully functioning health centre there in the fullness of time. But there are plenty of limiting factors we have to work through: we need the funds to send out, they need to organise the resources there to get the building done, and work with the government oversight of plans and build quality.

But of course, if we never start, we will never finish!

Every blessing,

Pete

Chairman

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Fresh appeals for fundraising

by Kelly Owen • 9 November 2024

Last month, Pete Muir, Trustee at GrassRoots Rwanda, shared two new areas of fundraising focus in the Shyogwe Diocese in his home church, St Michael and All Angels, Bishop's Cleeve, Cheltenham UK. St Micheal's Church is a Mission Partner of the charity. Watch Pete's short talk above or click here >> Grassroots Rwanda update talk on 27th Oct 2024 - YouTube Pete also 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: 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: justgiving.com/page/peter-muir-1729846773707 Thank you for your continued support and prayers.