How do good works get started? By two people saying "let's do something".

In 2005 and 2006 Brian Anderson, an experienced leader of Habitat for Humanity builds around the world .. in addition to week ends spent working with Habitat for Humanity wherever he was, became an integral part of the Rwandan community in New Hampshire where he was living. The Rwandans were refugees from the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and they wondered what it would take to get a group to Butare, the capitol of one of the provinces of Rwanda, to help rehabilitate the primary school destroyed in the genocide.

Beata Umugwangwali and Immaculee Niwemugeni, sisters, followed a sister and brother in law to Dover, New Hampshire after the genocide. Beata is a nurse specializing in gastroenterology and Immaculee is a French teacher at Portsmouth High School, and the two sisters moved into a house built by Habitat. Brian relocated to Miami for his profession, but he visited New Hampshire often, and the dream of restoring the primary school in Butare was never away from Brian’s mind. He took the plunge and traveled to Rwanda over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2006 and made the commitment to organize a group who would help build the dream.

Brian reached out to all of his former Habitat for Humanity participants and found 31 people who would pay their own travel expenses and contribute $1,000 towards the rebuilding of the school. Volunteers came from all over the world .. from as far west as Hawaii, from as far south as Miami, from as far north as Pittsburgh and even a couple from England. Everyone met at Heathrow Airport on July 21 for the Kenya Airways flite to Nairobi, connecting to an Air Kenya flite to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Volunteers came from all walks of life veterinarians, CEOs of companies, postal workers, retired executives, marketing executives, internet experts to help restore education to about 300 primary students, most of whom are orphans.

Accommodations at the Hotel Mont Huye in Butare were quite adequate, and the meals nourishing. Rwanda is a lesson in doing things as economically as possible. The Hotel Mont Huye has solar heated water, and the tank is sufficient for all of the rooms to have hot showers if the showers are taken the proper way. The hotel has power and indoor plumbing, but blow driers test the electrical system.

The Ecole Primaire de Butare didn't have running water until it was brought in for the 2007 project. The cesspool for the latrine was overflowing, and a new latrine was build. All but one of the classroom buildings had been abandoned, and the children were holding in class where the bullet holes from the 1994 genocide were still very visible.

One 6-classroom building was completely restored, with walls and floors refinished and repainted, windows and doors replaced, the roof replaced, and the children gratefully moved into the new classrooms just 4 days after the volunteers left.

But that's just one building .. there is another 6-classrioom building that needs the same repairs : new roof, new doors, new windows, new finish and paint on walls and floors; so another group is volunteers is heading to Butare on July 18, returning August 2.

If you're interested in becoming a part of the effort to "Educate the Children", call Lin McIntosh at 808-349-8319 or email DonateNow@FriendsOfButare.org

Friends of Butare, Inc. is NOW a not-for-profit organization. Please click the "donate now" button to use your credit card to help one child at a time.

Let's help one corner of the world expand their horizon beyond tribal affiliations through education.