Print

[ccarr]

Week 35

Each week we introduce you to the children of Hope Centre Burundi. We upload a picture of one child and give you their story.

Amina Niyonkuru

Amina's Story

Amina is 6 years old.

In 2004, Pastor Leonard's wife (Jolie) was visiting a church. After the church a baby (Amina) was found that had been left outside next to the church building. As it turned out, both Amina's parents had died within seven months of each other and there were no other relatives to look after the Amina so (Jolie) decided to bring her to live with their family in Gatumba.

Currently she is living with friends in Buyenzi.

She is in grade 1 at school.



Progress on Site

This week we see real progress on house number two with the plumbing and electrical roughings being installed. House number three and four now also have their plumbing roughings installed along with external windows and doors. The roof on house two is progressing well. House one is looking great inside.

As you know we are mainly concentrating on houses number one and two in our time remaining here.

People are asking us how long it will take to finish the six houses. The answer to this is related to how much donated money comes in and when. From the start of the project, and up to this moment, we have been careful to work within the available funds and limit the amount of materials and workers that we are using. This is only because we started the project with a fraction of the funds that would actually be required and now still need some additional funds for completion. So, at this rate, we hope to have the first two houses complete and, if possible, have some of the children move in along with Pastor Leonard before we leave in May with house number three being finished after this in mid June. Assuming the remaining money eventually comes in then the remaining six houses should probably be finished by the end of the year.

On the other hand if we had all the funds that will be required to complete the the whole project at our disposal now then we would easily be able to employ another ten brick layers and start making the blocks that are still required for houses 5 & 6 and then start working on all the houses at the same time. This would definitely allow all of the first three houses to be completed before we leave in May and the remaining three houses could be completed by September. Logistically though, even if the first two or three houses are ready before we leave in May it may not necessarily be practical for Pastor Leonard along with his family and some of the children to move into the houses so quickly. We will see.


So how much is required now to complete the six houses?

If you are interested to know how much is now still required then please click on the button below to expand the text of this section.

(click to show/hide)

House no 1 = funds already in hand for completion

House no 2 = £1,500

House no 3 = £5,600

House no 4 = £7,000

House no 5 = £10,000

House no 6 = £10,000

Total to Complete all of the Houses = £34,100

We will be having a meeting with Pastor Leonard and Vincent this week where we hope to confirm these costs as accurately as possible, given the fluctuating value of the pound and increasing costs of cement. We will also try and give the costs associated with the additional items listed below after we have had that meeting.

There is always the possibility that we may be able to sell the truck that was purchased last year for transporting materials to site. This might raise around £7,000. We are concerned, however, that this might be only a short term solution (and a little short sighted) and it might end up costing us more as we pay to have materials transported to site, but at the moment we are considering this as a possible means of raising some immediate finance for the project.


The following is also required.

Water to the site:

There is mains water available in Gatumba and to have this piped to the site will be = £2,000

Electricity to the site:

There is mains electricity available in Gatumba and to have this delivered to the site will be = Still to be confirmed.

N.B: We have been given prices between £1,500 and £10,000 by the electricity company so we haven't been able to confirm a realistic price yet.

Workman's/Security Guards Hut:

Basically everyone has employed workers that act as security guards and do general gardening and repairs etc. The cost of employing someone to do this is only a few pounds a week. They are normally provided with a place where they can rest and get cover from the rain and get cleaned up after a days work. We have already put the foundations in along with the necessary plumbing for a small workman's hut. We will still need to build this up above the foundations. It will be a very basic construction. This is over and above what we were originally requesting but now that we are here we see that this is an essential for Hope Centre security. Money required to complete = Still to be confirmed.

Perimeter Walls:

At the moment we have a temporary building site type fence surrounding the whole of Hope Centre. This has been very successful for providing some sort of security for the site however this can't be a permanent arrangement. We had hoped that Pastor Leonard would be able to try and raise the required finances to build a perimeter wall but, although he has been successful in getting trees and exoneration certificates etc, this one may be a bit of a problem for him so we would also like to try and raise the additional funds to build a very basic wall built with stones and red earth. This is pointed with cement later. This is a system that is commonly used here and can last many years. If possible we would like to be building this wall now. The additional cost for this will be = Still to be confirmed.


Out Side Cooking Area:

Cooking is normally done outside with charcoal on a small charcoal burner. It is not practical to do this inside so we will need to provide each house with a small covered area, just to the rear of each property for cooking. These will be very simple constructions and the cost of these will be = Still to be confirmed.


Outside Toilets:

Included within the are that we have built the houses on is a large piece of ground situated within the area where the trees have been planted. This will be a great area for the children to play ball games etc in the relative safety of the Hope Centre grounds. Each of the houses will have a toilet but we have already put the foundations in, along with the required plumbing, for an outside toilet block with a shower. This will stop the children from traipsing in and out of the houses. Outside toilets are more commonly used here than inside toilets. The additional cost for this will be = Still to be confirmed.

If you are wondering why the cost of this work is much more than we had originally estimated then you can read what we wrote about this in week 28 below.

		Quote:			Sent byccarr
	quote from Week 28 Work on Hope Centre May Have to Stop at the End of February: Although work is progressing steadily on site we now anticipate that the work may have to stop at the end of February until more funds come in. This isn't because of a lack of giving. On the contrary the giving and support on this project has been amazing. However, we haven't yet achieved the required estimated target for funding and on top of this the recession has hit us in several ways. Cement costs have risen. Because of the poor exchange rate we are not getting as much for the British Pound. In July 08 we were getting 2,230BIF to the £1 but now we are just getting 1,772BIF to the pound. As the cement is primarily the most used material on site this is now very expensive. There are other contributing factors such as the deeper foundations and the container taking so long to arrive that we were forced to purchase materials and tools that we had already purchased and stored in the container. For now we are only working on four houses and primarily concentrating on two and Pastor Leonard is seeking out additional funding, if possible, from other recognised funding sources within Burundi. We will also see if the Burundi president has anything to offer when we meet with him next week. For us it's not a problem if the work has to stop temporarily but we would rather have continuity for the workers who have shown great commitment to the project. Please keep this in your thoughts and prayers.

House Number Two


Work inside and outside for house number two has been progressing well:

Here you see some of the woman preparing the surface of the internal walls to provide a good key for the cement rendering:

And the roof sheeting has also begun:

House Number One

Our workers are well on with the ceilings and they are doing such a good job. The finish that you see is with the sheets of hardboard that we brought in the container, a system that is commonly used here as they don't have plasterboard (Gyproc).

This young man has been responsible for much of the good cement rendering work that is being carried out within the house. He is very careful and is getting good flat finish to the rendering. Not bad as he has had very little experience doing this.

The house has been getting a good clean out. The steel work has been getting an extra rust protecting coat. So now the floors will need to get a leveling coat of cement and there are cement skirtings to form. After this the main painting can begin.

On a side note regarding the paint.
 
We don't know how privileged we are in the west with our education systems and access to basic things such as paint. As you know, we have many tins of paint in the container that were donated by GPH Builders Merchants in Westhill. These will shortly come into their own when we begin the main painting. However we have been looking at what we have available and I suggested to Pastor Leonard that we could mix paints to get the desired colours. This produced a look of surprise on Pastor Leonard's face. I asked if he knew that paints could be mixed to produce different colours to which he said "no". I told him that if you mix yellow and blue together you get green or red and yellow and you get orange. This produced a look of amazement on his face. I proceeded to demonstrate with yellow and red. He was so impressed when he saw the different shades of orange ranging from yellow to red. I told him that he was learning at Hope Centre's Vocational School.

Val and I were talking and she suggested that Pastor Leonard probably didn't have access to any kind of paints or coloured pens as he was growing up. Just think how easy it is for our children to acquire these basic items.

Anyway here is house number one as it looks inside this week:

Bicycle Donations:

We brought about ten bikes that various people in Westhill donated. Some were in need of basic repairs, especially as they had been in the container for many months. We had a meeting with Rema regarding the bikes and sewing machines etc and we agreed to give them to Rema so that they could find someone locally to carry out any necessary repairs. It was agreed that Hope Centre would receive half of the bikes and that the other half would stay with Rema as they also get requests for bikes.

This week Rema dropped of five bikes that had been repaired and ready to use. They look so good in comparison to the basic bikes that you see here. As Pastor Leonard has no transport he will get the use of the big red bike. Some of the others are smaller and more suitable for Hope Centre children:

This week Val, I and the kids went to an restaurant in Bujumbura where we live, with another family that we are friendly with. The image below is not of John receiving his cup of tea but of a normal custom here before you eat. The staff bring a pan and jug of warm water. The pan has a bar of soap in it and the waiter pours some water on your hands over the pan so that you can clean your hands with the soap after which she rinses your hands with the water. You are suppose to just let your hands drip dry at your side:

(click to show/hide)

Non-GiftAid Donations:         

GiftAid Donations:

(click to show/hide)

Here are different ways to contact us in Burundi

Email:

Val Carr = vcarr@HopeCentreBurundi.com

Charles Carr = ccarr@HopeCentreBurundi.com


New Mobile Phone Numbers:

Val Carr: (00257) 79239810

Charles Carr (00257) 79239809

Our New House Phone Number:

Use this number sequence and you will only pay 4p per minute.

Dial: 08444 287287 & wait for a voice and then..
Dial: 00257 22259608

Please email us and let us know if you don't manage to contact us on these numbers.

(click to show/hide)

Pastor Leonard

Pastor Leonard's Story

Pastor Leonard was born in 1971, the youngest of five children. His parents were killed in a mass killing of their ethnic group in 1972. The children struggled to survive and look after each other for many years.

As a teenager Leonard was full of hatred and wanted to avenge the killing of his parents, but he became a Christian when he was 18 and was able to meet and forgive those who had killed his parents. He felt God told him clearly that he was to look after others who were orphaned as he had been.

At the time his circumstances did not allow him to do this, but he was ordained as a Pastor in 1996, and was able to take in his first orphan in 1997, just before he was married.

His wife partners him in this ministry and they now care for over 40 orphans in addition to their own three children.

Around about April this year Pastor Leonard's land-lord for the house that he was staying in asked Pastor Leonard and all the family and children to move out of the property which they were renting. Obviously this was an impossible situation for them. Latterly Pastor Leonard managed to negotiate a compromise with the land lord whereby his immediate family and a few of the orphans could stay in the property until his house was built. This meant that the remaining orphans had to be farmed out to friends that would be willing to take them. Pastor Leonard continues to provide food and clothing for these children which is now even more difficult for him. Thankfully though you have helped him greatly with your regular child support donations.