During the past year we’ve intensified our work on this website. Our goal was to publish as many texts as possible and in that way, dear friends, inform you about everything that happens in our mission.

I recently wrote about an anonymous donor who surprised us by donating a precious amount which will help us to start the construction of the secondary school.

This time I want to tell you about a wonderful couple from Canada, who has been unselfishly helping us for years, making it possible for the children of our parish to live a better life.

Their names are Victor and Monique. He’s eighty-seven, and she’s seventy-seven. Despite their age, they still commit a huge amount of their time to volunteer work and helping others. We are blessed, because we too are on the list of people Victor and Monique help.

At the beginning of last year, they both took part in the great project of our Canadian friends who sent a huge container filled with much needed things to Kivumu – from computers, furniture and school supplies to aids for the disabled.

For weeks, and in the incredible Canadian winter cold, Monique patiently packed everything in boxes to put into the container. Monique worked every day along with the rest of the folks despite the cold temperatures that dropped below minus 25 degrees. And not only that! She and Victor donated another 5,000 dollars to our project - $500 of which was designated to help in the cost of sending the container to Rwanda.

They follow what goes on in Kivumu by visiting our web site which informs our dear friends about our activities.

That’s how, last summer, they read the text in which I wrote how we completed the construction of two new buildings with four classrooms for our primary school. We built them, put them under a roof, installed windows and doors, and painted everything.

However, there was a ‘technical’ problem. The students of CFJ made everything - built everything - but we still lacked school desks and chairs for the classrooms! We needed help for the cost of the wood, out of which, of course, we ourselves would make the much needed furniture.

When they saw this, Victor and Monica immediately contacted us. They decided to finance the entire purchase of the wooden planks that we needed to make desks and chairs.  And that is exactly what we are doing, so that all school furniture will be made before January, when the new school year starts.

Dear friends, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Translated by: Branimir Mlakić
Edited by: Valerie Kae Ken

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