Rwanda partnership begins major fundraising effort
By CHRIS WALLER
The Fulton Sun
When spider webs unite they can tie up a lion.
This Ethiopian proverb sat on a screen in front of a crowd of nearly 60 people at Sir Winston's Restaurant Friday afternoon, and according to Dr. Bob Hansen the philosophy behind those words can help citizens here in Callaway County save the lives of children half a world away.
"This is a proverb that talks about what people can do when they get together," Hansen said. "Sometimes there is not much that just one of us can do, but a whole community can do a lot."
Hansen is the director of counseling and health services at Westminster College, and earlier this year led a group of students to Kibungo, Rwanda to serve as goodwill ambassador's from Callaway County.
That trip stemmed a partnership between the small town in Africa and the city of Fulton, and now that Hansen has returned, he is working with community leaders to help make the quality of life in Kibungo better.
During a meeting for the Rwanda Community Partnership project, Hansen gave a short presentation showing what life was like in Rwanda and why the help of the Fulton community was so important.
"All these students have HIV," Hansen said pointing to a photo of a group of young girls and boys. "If a mother doesn't know she has HIV she won't do anything to protect her baby from being born with HIV.
"If she knows it and has access to health care and has the right medicine to take just before the birth of the baby, the HIV is not transmitted."
Health challenges such as AIDS, malaria and malnutrition ravage the African community that Hansen visited, and during the presentation he explained what the overall goal of the partnership project was.
"Together we can raise enough money to build a children's and mother's health center that is so desperately needed," he said. "This is a project that will save lives - how many times in your life do you get the opportunity to do that?
"We can do that, and we're not talking about one or two people, we are talking about hundreds and hundreds."
Friday's gathering served as an organizational meeting for the project to build the clinic in Kibungo, but the actual fundraising part will not officially start until September. Wayne Lowen, Vice-president of Business and Finance for Westminster, is one half of the team that leads the fundraising, and at the meeting he spoke about why it is important for individuals to get involved in the money-raising process.
"There are thousands of people who are going to die every week of malnutrition and AIDS and the lack of medical care, and we all know that but it doesn't really effect us," he said. "We don't see the link between what we do and what that impact is, so for the thousands of people in Rwanda and around the world we think that's not our problem, so we're not impacted.
"Now we have a chance as a community to make a difference."
The other leader of the fundraising team, John Bell, president of the Ovid Bell Press, announced the minimum goal for the project would be $80,000, but also said in order to do everything the project envisioned $120,000 would be necessary.
He also announced that a large amount of money has already been pledged to the project.
"About $28,500 has been pledged so far and I feel we have a very good foundation to build upon and carry this to success and well in advance of $100,000" Bell said.
Anyone that is interested in joining the fundraising team or making a contribution can contact Lowen at wayne.lowen@westminster-mo.edu or Bell at john@ovidbell.com.
--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm: +250-08470205
Home: +250-55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali-Rwanda
East Africa
Blog: http://www.cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID : Kayisa66
By CHRIS WALLER
The Fulton Sun
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This Ethiopian proverb sat on a screen in front of a crowd of nearly 60 people at Sir Winston's Restaurant Friday afternoon, and according to Dr. Bob Hansen the philosophy behind those words can help citizens here in Callaway County save the lives of children half a world away.
"This is a proverb that talks about what people can do when they get together," Hansen said. "Sometimes there is not much that just one of us can do, but a whole community can do a lot."
Hansen is the director of counseling and health services at Westminster College, and earlier this year led a group of students to Kibungo, Rwanda to serve as goodwill ambassador's from Callaway County.
That trip stemmed a partnership between the small town in Africa and the city of Fulton, and now that Hansen has returned, he is working with community leaders to help make the quality of life in Kibungo better.
During a meeting for the Rwanda Community Partnership project, Hansen gave a short presentation showing what life was like in Rwanda and why the help of the Fulton community was so important.
"All these students have HIV," Hansen said pointing to a photo of a group of young girls and boys. "If a mother doesn't know she has HIV she won't do anything to protect her baby from being born with HIV.
| |
Health challenges such as AIDS, malaria and malnutrition ravage the African community that Hansen visited, and during the presentation he explained what the overall goal of the partnership project was.
"Together we can raise enough money to build a children's and mother's health center that is so desperately needed," he said. "This is a project that will save lives - how many times in your life do you get the opportunity to do that?
"We can do that, and we're not talking about one or two people, we are talking about hundreds and hundreds."
Friday's gathering served as an organizational meeting for the project to build the clinic in Kibungo, but the actual fundraising part will not officially start until September. Wayne Lowen, Vice-president of Business and Finance for Westminster, is one half of the team that leads the fundraising, and at the meeting he spoke about why it is important for individuals to get involved in the money-raising process.
"There are thousands of people who are going to die every week of malnutrition and AIDS and the lack of medical care, and we all know that but it doesn't really effect us," he said. "We don't see the link between what we do and what that impact is, so for the thousands of people in Rwanda and around the world we think that's not our problem, so we're not impacted.
"Now we have a chance as a community to make a difference."
The other leader of the fundraising team, John Bell, president of the Ovid Bell Press, announced the minimum goal for the project would be $80,000, but also said in order to do everything the project envisioned $120,000 would be necessary.
He also announced that a large amount of money has already been pledged to the project.
"About $28,500 has been pledged so far and I feel we have a very good foundation to build upon and carry this to success and well in advance of $100,000" Bell said.
Anyone that is interested in joining the fundraising team or making a contribution can contact Lowen at wayne.lowen@westminster-mo.edu or Bell at john@ovidbell.com.
--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm: +250-08470205
Home: +250-55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali-Rwanda
East Africa
Blog: http://www.cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID : Kayisa66
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