Week 36
Each week we introduce you to the children of Hope Centre Burundi. We upload a picture of one child and give you their story.
Guillain Niyonkuru
Guillain's StoryGuillain is 12 years old.
In 1997 both of Guillain's parents died of HIV within five months of each other. Unfortunately, Guillain is also HIV Positive. There were no remaining family
members to care for Guillain.
One year after his parents died, the neighbours of his parents brought Guillain to Pastor Leonard as they had heard that he was caring for orphans.
Currently Guillain is living with friends in Buyenzi and is in Grade 4 at school.
There's Hope for Hope CentreThis week we have some really good news for you. In a nut shell, it now looks possible to have three houses finished and see Pastor Leonard and many of the children move into these houses before we, as a family, return to the UK mid May.
How is this possible? Well last week we gave you an update on the costs for the finishing the first four houses and an estimate for house five and six and this week we had several calls and emails offering addition financial support and donations. This is so encouraging and so important at this time.
Some donations are large and go a long way and then there are the donations which are not anywhere like as large, but are so encouraging as they show people are continuing to think of the work being done here in Burundi. I would like to mention two people by name as this will be important for them.
Two children, Megan and Jonathan Kelly age 7 and 9, have been saving for the project in one of the Mission International house-shaped money boxes which we left with many people in UK. They opened the box this week and their dad added a bit to make what they had saved up to a round figure, and they sent it off to Mission International. Thank you Jonathan and Megan. "Many a mickle macks a muckle" as we say in Scotland.
One person said that they had money available to pledge next month that would be sent to the project and another said that they were sending money from their church's missions fund and requested that we give them a power-point presentation to show in their church on Sunday and would send us this Sunday's collection. So this amounts to over £7,000.
N.B: As the money goes directly to Mission International and not to us then there is often a time delay before we hear about your donation so please forgive us if we don't mention your specific donation in these communications.
This Weeks MeetingLast week we said that we would have another meeting with Vincent, our site supervisor, and Pastor Leonard to see where we go from here. We needed to know what was going to be possible with the available funds and also what was possible if more funds came in. If the houses were ready before we leave could Pastor Leonard move in? Many other questions were also addressed.
Were able to confirm that the estimated costs for completing houses 1, 2, 3 & 4 were very close to what we had expected. However the estimates for house's 5 & 6 were way off. The reason for this is the cost of the compressed blocks. To make a block that is strong enough to resist the heavy rains takes a lot of cement. In fact it takes much more than what the machine's manufacture suggests. We could not have known this without actually going through the process ourselves. This then begs the question if we should be using these blocks on house 5 & 6 as buying the basic clay bricks may actually be cheaper. My preference would be that we continue the project using the blocks as these look really good and would match the remaining four houses. Also, making these blocks provides work for the local community and reduces the trees that are being cut down here in Burundi.
There is a compromise though. We haven't considered this option yet, but there is plenty of time for this. We may consider making the compressed blocks just for the outside walls of the houses and buying the small clay bricks for the inside walls. As all the inside walls are cement rendered then this may be the best option?
Here is an image from this weeks meeting with Vincent assisting with the calculations for quantities and costs etc:
If we have four houses to begin with then this will be OK, as this will be enough to house all the children that are under 16 years of age. So we can take our time with house 5 & 6.
The next big thing to come out of the meeting was that Pastor Leonard was willing to move from where he is just now even if there is no proper perimeter stone wall around his property and around the site for all of the homes. He does already have running water and electricity at his house but we weren't able to guarantee that we would have water, let alone electricity, at
Hope Centre by the time that we leave in May. However he agreed that he would still be willing to make the move before we go.
He had indicated that the biggest problem of not having electricity would be for the children that go to the school in the afternoon (schools in Gatumba have two shifts - some go to classes in the morning and others in the afternoon as there are more children than the schools can cope with). When these children get home it is getting dark and they would find it difficult to do their homework without electric light.
The next big thing was to find out if it would be possible to have three houses complete with the fourth almost complete before we leave so that three of the houses could be occupied and Vincent is completely confident that he can organise this. I have complete trust in Vincent's ability to achieve this.
Lastly, even with the donations that have come in this week, there wasn't quite enough money available to achieve the completion of the three/four houses and get electricity and water to the site. We discussed this with Hugh Henderson of Mission International and he has agreed to move some funds into the project for now to speed the work up until such time as the remaining funds have been raised. With this weeks giving and Hugh's support then we were able to give the green light to Vincent and Pastor Leonard. Please keep praying that the funds still come in to cover this and the two remaining houses 5 & 6.
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.
House no 1 = funds already in hand for completion
House no 2 = funds already pledged
House no 3 = funds already pledged
House no 4 = £7,000
House no 5 = £10,000
House no 6 = £10,000
The actual cost will be more like £18,000. This is if we make all the blocks ourself but if we substitute clay bricks for the inside walls then we may be able to bring this down a fair bit.
Total to Complete all of the Houses = £43,000
The following is also required:
Water to the site: MI has temporarily forwarded the funds for this
There is mains water available in Gatumba and to have this piped to the site will be = £2,200. Work will begin on this this week but we still need the funds to come in for this.
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.
The latest quote this week is £4,200
Workman's/Security Guard's 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 = £1200
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 estimated cost is reported to be: £2,800
Outside 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 = £300 each.
Outside Toilets:
Included within the area 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.
So, What Happens Now?On Monday we will start digging a trench to the water main which is near the
Hope Centre site and the water company will make the connection.
The electric company will also be called in to bring the electricity on poles to the site. Since last week the estimates coming in for providing the connection have been more realistic.
We will be employing several more bricklayers, if we can get them (there is a new large sugar plantation company that have just moved into Gatumba and they have been using up the last available brick layers from the area).
Work will now be concentrated on houses 1, 2 & 3 and work will continue on house 4 but the workers for the other three houses will not be moved to house four. We will bring in the workers that are required for this house. All the windows and doors are ready for house three so the welder can now concentrate on manufacturing the windows and doors for house 4.
This is great news, isn't it! On top of this we are expecting the Benstead family (7 in all) to arrive here in Bujumbura next weekend (Sunday 5th April). They are bringing many things with them for the project, such as the ceiling light fittings for all six houses! They are also bringing more of the bedding and water-proof mattress covers which were donated for the children.
House Number OneIn one day the men laid the cement floor screed and polished it to a good standard and finish for every room in house 1. They all worked over their normal hours to complete the job:
Outside, the finish to the cement banding at the corners and around the windows has begun and is already looking good;
And here the shower base is being plumbed in:
House Number TwoWork in house number 2 is already well advanced and the workers are doing really well:
The women work so hard and also keep the floors clear and remove excess cement from door and window frames etc:
Hope Centre Vocational School Started This WeekHope Centre's Vocations School saw it's first student this week. Just joking, of course, but Pastor Leonard was keen to learn how to make the roof trusses. Having never done anything like this it was all a new experience for him. It takes a little longer than normal but he, with a little supervision by yours truly, did measure, cut and fabricate this roof truss all by himself. This truss will be used for house number 3.
148 Images of Our Time Here in Burundi
Below this text are 148 images of our time here in Burundi.
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Here are different ways to contact us in BurundiEmail:
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 22259608Please email us and let us know if you don't manage to contact us on these numbers.
Pastor Leonard
Pastor Leonard's StoryPastor 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.
February 21, 2009, 02:49:41 PM
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