In 1994, a boy in Rwanda watched the world he knew collapse around him. The boy’s father, a well-known and beloved teacher in their village, was senselessly murdered as genocide erupted across the country. The heartbreak and rage that followed sent the boy into the streets of Kigali, where he turned to drugs, alcohol, and fighting to cope with the atrocities he had endured. His actions earned him the nickname "Commando." While he is not proud of those years, he has never hidden from them. They are exactly what made that boy into the person he is today.

Most people who have lived that story are defined by it in ways that close them off. Evode Usabyamahoro let it open him up instead.

In the early 2000s, Evode started going back to the streets, not to survive, but to help. He preached at churches and pocketed the travel money they paid him, walking the distance himself so he could use it to buy food for street kids. He gathered children together to eat, to share, to feel seen. At first, many of them thought he was a joke. He kept showing up anyway. Slowly, they started to believe in him.

That quiet persistence became Ubaka u Rwanda. Since then, Evode and his wife Becky have lived full time at the home they built together, taking in boys from the streets of Kigali one by one, loving them as their own. My husband Russell and I have been visiting that home every year for four years now, and our friend Sully has been making the trip for at least 16. What Evode has built is something truly special. The boys are joyful, funny, and fiercely bonded to one another. Alumni come back constantly. Lewis now works at the house full time. Dodi comes every week to prepare nutritious meals for Evode, making sure the man who once fed him is now getting what he needs to maintain his health. Gabriel, who left to build his life as a chef in Uganda, just moved back to Rwanda because, to him, Ubaka is home. Evode built that. Not a refuge for street children, but, more simply, a family.

Right now, Evode is in the hospital.

He is battling kidney failure, congestive heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, and recurring bouts of pneumonia and sepsis, each condition making the others worse. He goes to dialysis three times a week for four to six hours at a time. He recently underwent surgery to treat a severe lung infection and is now recovering from a hospital stay his family cannot afford, on top of medical costs that are already overwhelming them. A kidney transplant is being arranged, with his sister confirmed as a match. We remain hopeful, but there are still many hurdles to clear before that transplant can happen and the road ahead is long and expensive. These costs are crushing a family that has spent everything they have on other people’s children for over two decades.

And while Evode fights for his health, the home he built needs help. We don’t have the funds to cover the boys’ school fees for the entirety of the upcoming term. Two of the kids told me recently that they are afraid Evode is going to die, and that if he does, they will end up back on the streets. They said it with a degree of resignation that broke my heart.

We are not willing to let that happen.

We are raising $15,000 to cover Evode's mounting medical expenses and to make sure our kids have their basic needs met and school fees covered. Every dollar goes directly to the home and the family. Our volunteers pay for their own travel. We have never taken a penny of donations for ourselves, and we never will.

If you can give, please give. If you can't, please share. These are real people who matter enormously, to each other and to us, and right now they need a village that reaches a little further than it has before.

Evode has done what he does for years. It’s time that we do something for him.

Turi kumwe. We are together.

With gratitude,

Amanda, Russell, and Sully

To read more of Evode’s story or learn more about what we do at Ubaka u Rwanda, please visit our blog at https://www.ubakaurwanda.org/blog