Renewal Center ❤️
Our partner, Victor Kwizera, has done a phenomenal job building and operating our Renewal community center in the Bujumbura slum called Musama. Renewal is a place where children can come to study, socialize, play games and sports, eat, and learn about Jesus. Although Renewal was originally meant only for children living in Musama, it has become such a popular place that children are coming from nearby neighborhoods to be part of the Renewal experience. All children, whether Hutu or Tutsi, are welcome to partake of the activities at Renewal. Victor also works with the adults in the community to help them avoid some of the social problems that rip at the fabric of their community, problems like alcoholism, mental illness, prostitution, and chronic truancy. Renewal truly is a refuge for a community living without hope and having an uncertain future. Two hundred fifty families in Musama are served by Renewal.
With God’s help, we hope to raise the $15,000 needed to operate Renewal for a year. That amount includes the cost of the annual lease of the property, furniture, fixtures, and equipment, food for the children, small stipends for Victor and his staff, food, and school uniforms and supplies for the children whose families need help in that regard.
Renewal has been such a success in Musama that we are hoping to open a second location in another poor quarter of Bujumbura called Busoro. Like Musama, Busoro is a grindingly poor slum where social problems abound. Mothers engage in prostitution, fathers are drunk every day, unemployment levels are 90 percent or more, and most parents expect their children to beg in the streets. The children in Busoro grow up without hope in the face of a dark reality that will be their lives if they do not somehow break out of the cycle. We have seen that Renewal can make a difference to these lifeless communities. If we open a second Renewal in Busoro, we will give the children of the community a place to learn, have fun, and meet the Living Jesus. Hope will emerge out of despair. We have seen it work in Musama and we will see it work in Busoro.
Like Musama, operating Renewal in Busoro will cost $15,000 per year. We need to raise an additional $5,000 so that we can pay first year’s rent upfront and make modifications and improvements to the building so that it is a safe and sturdy structure for the children.
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