Africa New Life Ministries

Directly in the middle of each GoED semester, each student takes a one-month practicum internship. My internship is here in Kigali working with Africa New Life Ministries. ANL is first and foremost a church, but has tons of missions and projects – one of them being a child sponsorship program. This sponsorship is mainly what I work with during my internship. However, in the afternoons I also help with an after school program tutoring about 100 boys. These boys are mostly street-children, were into drugs/stealing etc., are orphaned, or come from families that can’t afford for them to go to school. Rwanda’s government claims that school is free, but because of all the other expenses outside of just the fee, most families cannot pay for their children to go to school- especially if they have 8 or 9 kids. These boys I tutor are all in the sponsorship program and are looking for child sponsors.

Africa New Life Sponsorship is comparable to Compassion Child – a widely known sponsorship program all over the world. However, ANL is a sponsorship program solely for children in Rwanda. We have ANL schools in four different parts of Rwanda – the school in Keyonza was recently praised for having the best test scores for all of Rwanda. I believe this magnified approach to child sponsorship enables the program to really focus on their children and the connection they have with their sponsor. Many of the families who sponsor children in ANL have actually visited Rwanda just so they can meet their child. These are truly people who care deeply about their child. Sponsors send letters back and forth with their child frequently and some even send packages with school supplies or clothes – things these children really need but have no money to buy.

Each day we tutor these boys English and help them with their homework. I have rarely seen the kind of passion for learning these boys have. They really want to learn and succeed in school. Every day we crowd about 100+ boys in two different rooms with no desks, no school supplies, and no materials or curriculum. Essentially, we have chairs and a chalkboard. Although their situations are tough, they have no money, and some get fed once a day (ANL provides lunch for them), they still come to tutoring. 

If you want to know more about Africa New Life Ministries, or want to sponsor a child – Which i think you should! Here is the link to their website –

http://africanewlife.org/

These boys in Kigali are my buddies! They are sweet and it breaks my heart to know that because of their circumstances, they are unable to reach their fullest potential academically and financially. Here are some of the boys who I tutor. Aren’t they the CUTEST?
We recently found out the boy on the top left has tested positive for HIV/AIDS. His name is Bizimana. His parents told us this, but they have decided that Bizimana shouldn't know that he has AIDS because if he knows, they believe he will give up on life. Bizimana's family is too poor to pay for medicine; he mostly eats one meal a day because they don't have enough money even to buy food. He will probably live until age 15ish if he continues being malnourished and unable to buy the medicine he needs to cure his HIV/AIDS.