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Redempta’s Journey from Rwanda to Lesley Univ.

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Please allow me to share with you my Aunt Julie and her “sent from heaven daughter”, Redempta.  This page was created to ask for your generosity to help fulfill Redempta’s dream attending of the Threshold Program at Lesley University in the fall of 2020. 

Told through the thoughts and emotions of my Aunt Julie:

 
I have been told by many that I need to tell my story.  How exactly does one tell a story that is one’s own experience?  I, the storyteller, am not even sure that it will translate well.  Will the story open the heart and mind of the reader?

 
I haven’t had the courage to put it all down in writing before.  I have shared it verbally when someone would ask, but the enormity of the story even though I experienced it, still catches my breath.  Did this really happen?  The story is important to me, but will others be captivated? Many people have stories to tell.  Why this story and why now?  I will let you decide….

 
My name is Julie Carragher, formerly McGowan.  I am a Nurse Practitioner that has spent most of my career in Cardiology.  In 2012, I was working in an outpatient Cardiology office when I received an email from my attending physician, Dr. Patricia Come.  She asked me to consider traveling with her and a medical- surgical team to Rwanda.  She introduced me to Ceeya Patton Bolman, also a Nurse  and the co-founder of the non-profit organization, Team Heart.  I joined the team in 2013 and participated in the screening program, identifying the young men and women suffering from Rheumatic Heart Disease.  The trip was incredible, and I was, as we say in Team Heart, “bitten by the Rwandan bug”.  I was forever changed, and I imagined myself participating in future trips.

 
As I made my solo journey home to Boston, a monster of a storm was making its away along the East Coast of the US.  I was only able to make my way to Dulles Airport, where I was told that all means of transportation was stopped.  I found a hotel and settled in for a rest.  For the first time in many days, I rested.  A luxury that I never really afforded myself, as I was raising my 2 boys, then 10 and 12.  It was after my rest, at the quietest of times, I found a breast lump.  Once home, I was evaluated and diagnosed with an aggressive infiltrative breast cancer and I prepared for another type of journey.  While difficult, I kept my eyes on the prize of returning to Rwanda in 2014.

 
Sure enough, I did travel in 2014 and this is where the most important facet of my story begins and is aimed at you, the reader, to be captivated.

 
Redempta Muhorakeye is a 21 year-old young woman who was raised in the rural village of Rukambura, Rwanda.  Redempta is the daughter of Ndgome and Febronia(now deceased) and the sister of Quaggi, Odette, Fortida, Laetitia, David, Rebecca and Cosi.  

Redempta’s family home is quite modest consisting of only 2 rooms.  The walls are made of hardened mud and the roof constructed with thatch.  During the rainy season, Redempta remembers being cold and wet inside the home.

 
The Team Heart screening team met Redempta and her mother in February of 2014 at the City Hospital of Kigali, known as CHUK.  Redempta was the patient of one of our Rwandan colleagues, Dr. Emmanuel Rusingiza. Redempta was an inpatient at CHUK acutely ill and suffering from end stage RHD.  Despite aggressive medical therapies, Redempta was very ill and there was no hope for improvement unless she underwent valve replacement cardiac surgery.

 
Redempta’s illness began when she was a young child.  Redempta remembers that it started with a sore throat and fever.  By age 11 she developed a cough, weakness and shortness of breath.  The illness was so debilitating that Redempta could no longer attend school.  She describes herself lying in her home on a dirt floor struggling to breathe.  Her home was without a bed or pillows to raise her upright.

 
Redempta was selected as one of the 16 patients to be operated on in February 2014 by Team Heart.  Redempta was admitted preoperatively to King Faisal Hospital with her mother at her side. Her mother stayed with Redempta, lying side by side in a hospital bed.  Her father stayed home to care for the other children.  

 
It was during the preoperative period that Redempta’s mother asked to speak with me.  Through an interpreter, Redempta’s Mom pleaded with me to please take Redempta to America to raise her and provide for her.  Her Mom made a selfless request to spare Redempta any more suffering, as the family was unable to support Redempta over the course of her recovery from surgery.  Redempta’s Mom wanted Redempta to have a future and this request of me was an act of love.

 
My answer was of course, Yes!  The challenge to accept this request was more than a simple yes.  Redempta was not an orphan.  She could not be adopted.  Many avenues were explored to facilitate Redempta coming to the US, but all were not possible for one reason or another.  In April of 2014, while I was sleeping, I awoke suddenly and knew the answer.  I knew how to get Redempta to the US!


In January 2003, our daughter Zoe Margaret was born with Trisomy 18 and was unable to sustain life.  The loss of our baby girl will forever be mourned.  What I did not imagine was that Zoe would become the reason that Redempta could come to the US.  Redempta received the Zoe Margaret Carragher scholarship and Rwanda provided Redempta with a passport and visa to study in the US with the Carragher’s as her host family.  It has been 6 years since that day and the days have been full of the love and joy of Redempta in our lives. In our hearts we believe that God had a plan for Zoe.  Zoe, like the Holy Spirit, breathed new life in Redempta.  Redempta was saved by the grace of God through the blessing of Zoe.

 
Redempta arrived in Braintree, Massachusetts in July of 2014.  She is completing her studies at Saint Mary of the Assumption School in Brookline and at Braintree High School Launch Program.  She is eager to continue to learn and someday she would like to return to Rwanda “to help my people, especially my family”.  Redempta enjoys sewing, knitting and cooking. Redempta hopes to study Culinary Arts at Lesley University’s Threshold Program.

 
I have had this amazing opportunity to change Redempta’s life. I am so grateful for this opportunity and truly believe that God brought us together. Redempta is God’s child and I have only been an instrument in his plan.  I cannot thank you enough for caring about Redempta.   In 2017, Peter Gelzinis, writer and John Wilcox, photographer of the Boston Herald beautifully shared Redempta’s life. 

Please access this link to that piece: https://www.bostonherald.com/2017/07/26/gelzinis-rwanda-trip-changed-2-lives/

 
Please, any amount of money is not too small. Any amount that you may give will help us meet the goal of Redempta attending Lesley University.  God Bless you!
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $50
    • 4 yrs
  • Michele somerville
    • $100
    • 4 yrs
  • Judith Letteney
    • $100
    • 4 yrs
  • Julie Willett
    • $100
    • 4 yrs
  • Angela Whitaker
    • $40
    • 4 yrs
Donate

Organizer and beneficiary

Meaghan Jacobs
Organizer
Plymouth, MA
Julie Carragher
Beneficiary

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