It will be Rwanda

I just received word that the Area Development Project (ADP) that our community around Cambridge, Minnesota will be building relationship with will be in Rwanda.  This has gone back & forth a bit between Rwanda and Kenya, but has not landed until now.  The area will be either in Kivuruga or Maraba; the details are still being worked. 

Rwanda is ranked 161st out of 177 by the United Nations in regard to their Human Development Index.  60% of Rwandan people live on less than $1/day.  What little economic & political stabiilty Rwanda had was desemated through the civil unrest in the 1990’s highlighted by the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis over 100 days by the Hutus and the subsequent fleeing of 2 million Hutus fearing revenge.  The infant mortality of Rwanda is 98 deaths per every 1,000 live births; nearly 1 dead for every 10 living – this is one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world.  About 35% of Rwandans are illiterate and the average life expectancy is 49 years.  26% of Rwandans do not have access to safe drinking water and the average annual income per person is about $250 per year (US dollars).  Finally, Rwanda is the most densely populated country on earth with 9.46 million people in 10,169 square miles – about 931 people per square mile – here in Isanti County, that number is 71 people per square mile.

Certainly there is much work to be done.  World Vision is already having a material impact helping bridge over 23,000 children sponsored by those in the U.S. and 47,000 worldwide.  WV operates 13 development programs, 5 of which have U.S. involvement.  Lives & communities are being transformed, but there is far greater need than the current support. 

It is here, in this tiny land-locked country in Africa, that we will make our first statement in response to global poverty, disease & suffering.

Please join us in this fight.