Camphill Communities California

Dearest Friends & Supporters of Camphill,

We have the rare opportunity to receive a special visitor, Zacherie, co-founder of the Ubumwe Community School and the new Camphill-inspired community in Mwogo, Rwanda. Zacherie will be visiting Camphill California for 4 days to see our community homes and programs, and build our inspiring partnership and friendship. Camphill California is inspired to raise a matching donation of funds for their amazing work, and we need your help! We are raising funds to support Camphill Rwanda, a sister initiative aligned with our mission of caring for individuals with developmental disabilities. All donations will go to Camphill California and will be granted at our discretion to support Camphill Rwanda.

-$10 provides much-needed books for the library

-$25 pays for a week of meal programs for food-insecure families with children with disabilities

-$100 pays for a teacher’s salary and materials for the classroom

-$600 supports a student with disabilities to receive a whole year of high school education, including room and board!

Here’s a note of gratitude from the co-founder:

Hi!

I would like to share with you the updates on our projects, mainly on the library in the children's section which is used as an inclusive ECD.

In general, the library as a whole is open on Fridays and Saturdays in the afternoons from 3 pm to 7 pm for the public and every day for the school. Betty and Clarisse coordinate the related activities. When it comes to the public, we receive 20 users of the library a day. Six young volunteers work with us in the library and inclusive ECD.

As far as the ECD is regarded, we registered 56 children, of whom 10 have disabilities. One of them, a girl of 4 years old, has genu vara (bowed legs) deformity that could be corrected in a hospital like Gahini in Eastern Province. Five children present malnutrition signs. They attend our service from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm. The use of our library services will be revisited and reviewed on a quarterly basis.

Clarisse, Betty, and Elisabeth coordinate the inclusive ECD service. Divine and Eugénie work as their assistants. We offer milk porridge and amandazi/donuts to children. Every parent will avail himself/herself once a month to volunteer as a safety and security guard for children in our community center. It means we always have at least nine people looking after all children during their four hours spent in our center each of the three days a week.

Services are still free of charge. However, for school uniforms, parents will buy fabrics and the tailoring students will do the job.

One major challenge to be solved as soon as possible is the lack of pocket money (small wages) for volunteers who look after children and the library. Another one is paving parts of the yard and making gardens in front of the library. The soil contains much clay and it becomes muddy whenever it rains. Finally, there is a need to increase the quality and quantity of food for children. We need more and more books for children and young adults, as well as teaching materials in general, including those in skills learning.

Last year, you (Anya) and friends raised funds for us. We used them in cultivating 1.5 hectares of land where we grew 320 avocados, 80 mangoes, and potatoes.

In total, there are 61 students in skills, plus 56 children in ECD, and 7 PWDs in farming. The monthly 750,000 Rwf food money from Point Foundation and the farm yield benefit around 125 people for breakfasts and lunches. Among them, 14 people stay in two resident houses and benefit again from the same sum for their dinners. Next year, the number of users of residential houses will increase to 16. They will need more furniture and bedding.

Seven families take a good share of the yield from the farm two times a year, as well. So, the impact of the Mwogo project has become bigger and bigger over the course of the last six years.

Words are not enough to say thank you to our partners!

- Zacherie