Agnes and Elias

March 23, 2010 4:01 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

This past Friday marked a historic day in the Living Bricks Village. Without a doubt, any day where a disadvantaged person becomes a person with economic capacity overnight will always be a monumental day in that person's life and in the lives of their family.

On this day, Pastor Deo Gashagaza, (Prison Fellowship Rwanda Executive Director), Andrea McDaniel from the As We Forgive Rwanda Initiative, new friend and partner Diana Wiley (learn about her work with True Vineyard), and myself (Rachel Weber, LBC Rwanda-based Comm. Coordinator) made the trek out to the Bugesera District to visit with the community members of the Living Bricks Village and those waiting to become members through home ownership in the Living Bricks Village.

 Proudly standing by their homes waiting to welcome the visitors were Elias Nkubiri and his family and Agnes Mugakatore and her children.

I met Elias my very first week in Rwanda this past September. Each time I met him on my visits, he would tell me about his family and his desire to care for them. Unfortunately, he was crippled by his returned refugee status in his own country. When he returned to Rwanda in 1994 he found his family property was gone, and there were limited opportunities for growth and prosperity for his family.

Praises were streaming from Elias' lips about the joy and freedom that accompany home ownership in Rwanda. The family's relief was tangible as they invited us in for a tour of their new home.

Agnes has been without a husband for the past fifteen years. After the genocide, her husband was imprisoned for life for genocide crime.  She was left with three children, no home, and no source of income. Still, the heaviest burden weighing on her is the shame of her past, and her familial association with the killers. Ever since her husband's imprisonment, she has been living transitionally with those who offer to house her and her children.

This past Friday was Agnes' second day in her first home in sixteen years. A quiet woman, tears were flowing down her face when we approached her doorway, and she did away with her typically soft tone of voice. Waving her arms in the air and thanking God and Pastor Deo, exuberant words of joy and thankfulness spilled out of her mouth. Because of Living Bricks, she can now rest in the knowledge that her children can sleep safely at night.

While a home does not erase the pain of a husband sentenced to life in prison or the scars of her unwanted association with a group known to kill, the security of a home will offer her safety, comfort, and a chance for economic mobility as she continues her personal journey to promote peace and unity in her village.

After the Living Bricks Village is complete, Prison Fellowship Rwanda will work with families to establish income generating activities such as livestock sharing projects or agricultural cooperatives in the village. Now that the recipients have stability in the home, they have greater capacity for economic development and improved livelihood.

Living Bricks is renewing lives, rebuilding communities, and restoring homes. Will you give a brick?

- Rachel Weber, Communications Coordinator for the Living Bricks Campaign