Rwanda Visit: Part One

This past week I visited Rwanda (Thursday through Sunday), mostly to visit a friend, Christi, and go to Lake Kivu. A blog post will be coming later in the week about that! But another thing I did on my trip was get a chance to visit my Compassion child. This is the third visit with Asumani and sponsoring him and seeing him over the years has been an interesting journey. Here is a brief overview- I started sponsoring Asumani in 2002, soon after I graduated from college and was looking for a way to tithe money from my first out of college job. I chose him from a database on Compassion International's website (www.compassion.com) and chose Rwanda because of the East Africa connection and a vague awareness of the genocide.

When I moved to Uganda in 2008 I hoped that I would be able to plan a visit after getting his letters and pictures over the years. In February 2009 I was able to visit Asumani and his family for the first time- here we are at that meeting:

Through this visit I got to meet the Compassion staff in his area and some of the national office staff. I was really impressed with their work and care for the kids. This picture is of me with Asumani and his family along with a few Compassion staff members:

You can see I got a special red Rwandan basket as a gift from the family. After this visit I arranged for our students to hear from Compassion in Kigali and was able to visit again with Asumani in August 2009- here we are with the student group at the Kigali office:

During the past years I've had other interactions with Compassion- the local office near Mukono where our students volunteer, meeting UCU students who are Compassion recipients, and seeing their work and sites around East Africa. I even had a chance to visit their main office in Colorado Springs years ago. I have been grateful for the insight in to the organization I have been supporting for years, and glad to see all the good work they are doing. It seems that their focus solely on sponsorship allows them to have local offices run by people from the community, and supporting the families in their area.

So this past weekend I had another visit with Asumani. Conveniently he lives in the same town (and within walking distance!) of Christi's house. We recognized each other right away, but he is definitely a teenager now! We were able to visit and talk about school and our families and take some pictures together. I told them (through Christi's translation) that I was leaving Uganda and this would probably be the last time I would visit them. Here is Chance, Asumani, me and his mother at their home:

While I don't think that sponsorship is the perfect solution to poverty, it does a good job of providing opportunity and education. Done well, like with Compassion, it can be more than just relief. Getting to meet Asumani and his family helps me see some of the complexities of their lives- health issues, school struggles, difficult living conditions. I understand that sponsoring someone does not change everything for them but a holistic organization like Compassion that cares about the whole family is a good start.

I wish I had a copy of the first picture I had of Asumani when he was 6, but even in these pictures you can see him growing up. Seeing him this past week made me want to recommit to praying for him and his family even though we might not physically see each other again. I am hopeful for him and the ongoing work of Compassion in the lives of so many.