Mennonite
Central
Committee

A Place of Hope

Africa

From the unfinished windows of a small, concrete building, the sounds of joyous, rhythmic, a cappela worship waft across the green Rwandan hillside each morning. This is the Mwana Nshuti choir, Chorale Bethel. These are the voices of a small group of children that make up the heart of the Mwana Nshuti (Child, My friend) program for street children in Kigali, Rwanda.

In 1996, a small group of members of the Evangelical Friends Church of Rwanda started taking in children from the street. During this time period, after the 1994 war and genocide, Rwanda was overwhelmed with orphaned children living in the streets. Church members took in children, bathed them, fed them, and found homes for them. This was how the Mwana Nshuti program began.

In 2007, with the leadership of Friends Peace House, Mwana Nshuti is planning to expand its vocational training programs to become a full-fledged and self-supporting technical school, but the mission of the school remains--to restore hope to the most vulnerable children.

Musafiri, who graduated from the program in 2005, and learned tailoring and hair-cutting, testifies that: "The thing that encouraged me the most was listening to the Word of God." Musafiri's mother died when he was young. His surviving father lost everything during the war and genocide. He attended school sporadically after that and moved between the homes of different family members. When he was forced to leave secondary school for good, because his family could no longer pay the fees, he says, "I stayed home and roamed from one place to another, trying to find money, but found nothing."

Then he heard about Mwana Nshuti from a neighbor who had met one of the teachers. He explains, "Before I came to Mwana Nshuti, I was afraid and ashamed. I stayed away from other people. But at Mwana Nshuti, I had the opportunity to participate and be with others. I understand now that I can do many things in my life." The thing that Musafiri loves most in life is singing. "When I came here, I already had a gift for singing. The teachers encouraged me. They gave me advice about how to sing, and gave me the opportunity to teach other children. I got to be the president of the Mwana Nshuti choir. Now I sing in the church and I have formed other groups, and I compose my own songs."

 

New Times

Let bygones be bygones, oh, oh.
Don't meditate, don't remember it.
I am going to work new things in your home,
in your family, in your life, oh, oh.
I am God changing histories. (x2)
Don't lose heart. Don't be
discouraged.
If the world's sun shines on you, oh my child.
I come to give you rest. (x2)

Let go of anger, let go of wrath.
For those, my child, bring only evil.
Do not leave your heart, be strong.
Do not fear. (x2)