Hope Centre - Sustainability Projects:

Sustainability the centrepiece of success:
The old adage "provide a man with a fish to eat you will probably have find a fish for him every day, provide him with a fishing rod and teach him to fish he can find fish for himself and feed himself" is key to the idea of sustainability. When Mission International first drew up the plans for the Hope Centre in Burundi in conjunction with Rema Ministries and Pastor Leonard this concept was central to our agreement.

Pastor Leonard Tuyishimire, who oversees the Hope Centre project on a daily basis has begun to lay out small vegetable gardens on the remaining ground around the homes which will in time produce some food for the family. A chicken project is now being funded and should be in place soon and there is a small herd of milk cows producing milk and a small income for the project as well. Many of the kids have been sponsored and so this project has the early signs of success.
3 of the 6 Hope Centre homes are now complete, the funds becoming available for house 4 as well.
Pastor Leonard gets down to business preparing the ground and getting plants growing which will provide food very soon.

Some young plants, shaded from the intense sun will soon be planted out and will in time be a healthy food provider for the family.

Skills Centre Plans:
The next phase of the Hope Centre project is to put in place a skills centre. Many of the returning refugees have no hope of finding work locally if they have no skills and so Mission International would like to find the resources to erect and resource a skills centre for the men and women of the community.

If you would like to support the Hope Centre in Burundi please use the options on the right column of this page.

Hope centre - Kids move in:

First three homes are now occupied:

The sight of happy smiling faces on the Hope Centre kids makes all the hard work, so far, so much worth it. When we first met Pastor Leonard and the kids in 2006 we could not have hoped for such a wonderful outcome for them. These kids had been traumatised by war and left destitute and for many without any family as a result.

Our first offer was to send some money to get them mattresses to sleep on at night and then Mission International managed to fund a fairly regular food programme for the children. It was when a large donation of £30,000 arrived at Mission International's base in Scotland that a much more advanced project was initiated.

Here some of the kids enjoy their new surroundings, now called the Hope Centre, sitting outside of one of the homes in Mutimbuzi.

Sitting around the dinner table will be very much a first for these kids. Life from now on will be full of new experiences.

We are very grateful to Charles & Val Carr and their family for their selfless commitment to this project, leaving their home, family and friends to spend 10 months in Burundi in order that this project could reach the stage that it has. The Carrs are now back in the UK but the project continues. Four of the six homes will soon be complete and so funding is still needed to complete the last two homes.

The Next Phase:

The next phase of this project is to put in place a skills centre for the local refugee returnee community. We hope also to put in place a medical centre which will service the many who have no access to medical services.

Getting involved:

If you can support this project financially please use the options at the top right of this page.

To see a weekly update of the project from day one until now go to the Hope Centre website www.HopeCentreBurundi.com

Hope Centre Homes near completion:

First home is ready for habitation:
In the summer of last year the Carr family from Westhill in Aberdeenshire made their way to Burundi to become involved in the planning, construction and management of the Hope Centre in the township of Mutimbuzi in Gatumba, Burundi. For them it was a huge adventure and a journey of discovery.
Charles and Val Carr had visited Burundi in the March of 2008 to have a look at the country and to see how they could be involved in the project, which was loosely planned on paper but had at that time no drawings or other planning in place. The first experience their three boys had was when they stepped off the plane for their year long trip. I am sure that the family had no idea what was before them then and how on earth they were to fulfil their mandate, that of building the Hope Centre in Mutimbuzi.
Both Charles and Val took their job very seriously and even before going out had set plans in motion to have the appropriate equipment in place by loading a container of materials and resources and having it sent to Burundi.
If you read this blog and visit the www.HopeCentreBurundi.com website you will see a very detailed weekly account of the progress made during their stay. The family will be returning to the UK by the end of May and will be starting new jobs and for the boys new schools leaving behind their project to be completed by the staff they have set in place in Burundi.
Not all of the homes are complete but it is hoped that three of the six homes will be finished by the time the Carrs return. More funding is also required for the remainder of the homes and for the security wall which will surround them.

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Special Christmas Visitor to the Hope Centre:

Burundian President turns up dressed for work:
The president of Burundi Pierre Nkurunziza arrived at the Hope Centre in his overalls and wellington boots. The cavalcade of vehicles stuffed with soldiers and security fanned out around the Hope Centre site as the president stepped out of his vehicle to see what the project is all about. Pastor Leonard Tuyishimire was able to show the president around the project introducing him to key staff who were able to show him the details of how this site is cutting edge in terms of vision and design. The president was impressed by what he saw and is keen to talk to Charles & Val Carr, Mission International's staff (who were at home in Scotland over Christmas) to discuss how he can support this project.

Building work continues apace although more funding will be required to complete the project as well as deal with the next phase which is hoped to be a skills centre to help skill up Gatumba's returning refugees.

Windows and doors are being fabricated on-site and are now being incorporated into the houses as they are built.

The BIG Meal:

At Christmas time Mission International tries to find funds to give needy children a Christmas Day meal. Below the Hope Centre kids came to the site to have their meal on the site of where their new homes are being built.

To see the full story of Christmas at the Hope centre go to http://www.hopecentreburundi.com/

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Hope Centre Container arrives safely:

The long awaited container arrives:
After months of waiting and a number of 'false alarms' the container, sent out from Westhill, Aberdeenshire, has now arrived on site in Gatumba. It was a nervous time for everyone with all sorts of unanswered questions remaining. Would the container be held in Burundi's port for inspection and clearing? Would the customs officers require bribes to let the container through? Would the seals have been tampered with and would there be anything missing from inside.
In the end the container was allowed on site to be processed and it was found to have the seal intact and the contents untouched.

Below the truck carrying the container arrives on site only to get stuck in the soft ground overnight where it had to be emptied by hand and the contents carried into storage the following morning.

Piece by piece the items are removed and taken to the on-site storage facility.
Bags of cement weighing 50kg are carried to the store.

At last everything is on site, and even the new cement mixer is in situ ready to start work. Even the battery which sat idle for a number of months in transit started the mixer first time.
to see the whole story visit the http://www.hopecentreburundi.com/

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Up, Up and Away!

The walls begin on the first house:

A moment of excitement for all concerned as the first brick is placed on the walls of the first house in the Hope Centre In Burundi.

Walls go up!
Soon major progress on the construction will be visible. Most of the work up till this stage has been below the ground and for the uninitiated is invisible, but now we are beginning to see the visible part growing before our very eyes. Now we can see the layout of the interior of the house as well.

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Perpetual Progress:

Final steps before walls go up:
The final stages of contruction, up to ground level are now almost complete on a number of the homes being built at the Hope Centre Burundi. The underground tanks are installed, the floors of the homes are in place, now the team begin on the walls. Over the next few weeks we hope to be able to show pictures of the houses beginning to look like the finished article. We also want to be able to give you news of the arrival of the shipping container where lots of building materials are held.


Below: Still lots of people on site preparing the floors and making the compressed blocks required for the construction of the walls.

Below: The floor cement apron is now laid on the first house so that the walls can be constructed.Below: Stacks of bricks are now ready to begin the wall construction.

To view a weekly pictorial update please click here

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