“The school year was very long and we are glad we can relax and enjoy the beauty of this place as we enter our holidays”, said one of our students during the field trip that took around 92 of our sponsored students to a private ranch and a garden in Sake, at over 30 kms from Lac Vert where most of them are staying.
Field visits are an essential part of our work, as part of our Rudi Education program; we take the kids out of their comfort zone to discover a new place, a different reality from what they are used to. The main objective of these is to show the kids that despite their current life, they are able to imagine, dream and work on determining their own future which should not be determined by their past. During our meetings, we remind them that they cannot change their past, that they have a say in designing the future they want for their lives, with God’s help. Rudi International is just opening one door, giving them access to education, a lifetime opportunity that they should take seriously.
In the past, we took them on another field visit, the national broadcasting corporation (RTNC) which is located at a hill called “Mont Goma”, in the center of the city. From the top, you have a view of the whole Goma city as well as of the Nyiragongo volcano. They also had the opportunity to learn everything radio and TV broadcasting process. Check this one as they visited the Goma main harbor!
On July 5th 2017, they had the opportunity, at the ranch, to ride a donkey and this was beautiful as they were thriving to stay on its back and at the same time learn to pet it so the donkey stays quiet and humble. These are things you will pay a lot of money to do but we were fortunate enough we didn’t pay per kid but we paid just a small contribution in order to benefit from this experience. The owner of this place was so welcoming after we explained to him why we are offering this experience to our kids.
Most of these kids are living in families torn by different issues, from poverty to painful experiences their parents went through. Some of these kids have a single parent, either because the father decided to leave them or the mother left looking for a better life leaving her family behind. Some of these students are living at their grandparents because parents are no longer together for so many reasons. But what they all have in common is that they are long time internally displaced families, who left their original place of stay due to war/conflict and have been living for the past 5 or 7 years at a place where they have no land to farm; they are now renting a small place to stay, in difficult life conditions, making it hard for them to gain a living and support the education of their kids.
That’s why at Rudi International we have decided to focus our action in Lac Vert so that we can support these families, either through supporting the education of a number of their children as well as supporting their mothers, sisters through our Sewing Project. We have been doing this for quite some time now and we are thankful to God and our supporters who are joining hands to support our work. God is simply using us to put love in action, with the support of our friends from all over the world.
At the beautiful private garden, the kids had the opportunity to learn on modern farming using machinery. They had the opportunity to see how technology can apply as well into farming, making life easy and allowing a large space to be farmed in a short period of time.
“So, this machine can work on this whole space for 3 days, only ?” asked one of the kids after they have been shown an engine that is able to take care of a spot that would require up to 10 people to do the same job, within two weeks or more. In their context, all they see is their mothers, sisters going to farm and spend weeks working on a small piece of land and come back home very very tired.
With this field trip, we were able to congratulate them for a year well spent and wish them the best of holidays and we look forward to seeing them again in September when school starts. On our side, we will be working hard to make sure we are able to gather enough sponsors to support their schooling.
You can learn more about previous trips we did with the students in the past on this website or through our Facebook page, Rudi International.
If you want to sponsor a student (or renew your sponsorship) for the upcoming school year, please visit our website and use the donate button to make a secure donation. You will then receive a thank you note form our President to confirm your donation. We will then assign you to a specific children in need of support.
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