News

From Loose Lips: Kigali Community Newsletter

Last weekend Janet and I took advantage of visiting grandparents to escape the children for a night to investigate the potential of Rwanda ?s cycling trails ? a possible additional tourist offering to the usual visitor fare of gorillas and genocide sites.

Project Rwanda has recently added Jake Chaya to its advisory board. Jake will help us implement pilot programs as our Development Adviser - Rwanda.

Meet Jake Chaya

Jake, who lives with his wife and family in the suburbs of Minneapolis, has been a business owner and missionary for 23 years. His first trip to Rwanda in April of 2008 opened the doors for him and, catching Tom Ritchey's vision of how Rwandan coffee farmers could transport coffee beans on coffee bikes, struck a particular interest.

August 22 - September 1

This exclusive tour opportunity will precede the Wooden Bike Classic in Ruhuengeri. Make the most of your trip ? see Rwanda by bike. Take in the beautiful rolling countryside, breathtaking views and bountiful wildlife. Your tour guide will be American cycling legend and Team Rwanda coach, Jock Boyer. Bike rentals are available but quantities and sizes are limited so register for the tour now to reserve yours early.

To sustain continued improvement on the lives of impoverished coffee farmers in Africa, Equal World Coffee “buys high” (above “fair trade” prices). Then, by working closely with an exceptional roaster, Equal World Coffee contributes to the education, training, equipping, promotion and empowerment of the coffee cooperatives they purchase from. And now Equal World Coffee is selling Wooden Bike Coffee online.

The Coffee: A Perfectly balanced Rwandan Specialty coffee that has a sweet note of intensity combined with flavor that is subtle and sophisticated. The bittersweet balance finishes with an unparalleled coffee flavor. For every bag purchased, $3 will be donated to Project Rwanda. Medium/dark roast and decaffeinated available.

As We Forgive Those reveals perhaps the greatest untold story coming out of Africa today. Rather than another account of African despair, this documentary tells of Rwanda?s rebirth through the reconciliation of victims and killers. It?s a film about what Africa can teach us. As such, the film?s mission is to expose people across America and beyond to the potential that reconciliation has to transform families, neighborhoods, cities, and even nations.

We are launching a national outreach campaign to screen As We Forgive Those in communities across the US. Our hope is to inspire a wider discussion on the need for reconciliation in our personal lives, our institutions and even in our governments.

Learn More...www.asweforgivethose.com

Eco-Tourism Provides Protection for Gorillas, Profit for County Ravaged by Genocide

Most people would not put the words "Rwanda" and "tourism" together, but the government is determined to do so. In this country with so little, great care and attention has been put into creating an eco-tourism program that protects the gorillas and helps the people in the communities that surround them. All the while giving folks like us a chance to visit them, for a price.

Our mission was to see how the mountain gorillas, one of the most endangered animals on the planet, are doing under the management of one of the poorest countries on earth. According to the World Wildlife Fund, these gorillas are on the brink of extinction.

Our guide, translator and driver for the trip was a man named Themis, a local journalist and a survivor of the genocide.

Read more...

Rwanda's Parc National des Volcans (PNV) consists of 125 square km of mountain forest and is home to the six Virunga Volcanoes and the world famous mountain gorillas. Access to the park begins in the lively town of Ruhengeri. Serving as the entry point for gorilla visits, Ruhengeri also features an astoundingly high concentration of bicycle use. So it is here, against this stunning backdrop, that Project Rwanda will base it's operations for the third annual Wooden Bike Classic.

Santa Barbara Middle School Graduate Jacob Seigel-Boettner Leads Effort to Supply Rwandan Coffee Farmers With Bicycles

"As a student at the Santa Barbara Middle School where one-week cycling trips are part of the curriculum, I learned about self-sufficiency and developed a desire to confront challenges with realistic solutions," said Seigel-Boettner. "Bicycles are essential in the daily life of the Rwandan coffee farmers. By making new bicycles available to them through a micro financing program, they continue to play a key role in rebuilding their country's economy.

Heart rate through the roof, lungs burning, pedal stroke erratic. As I round a bend in the road, I am hit by a wall of excited screams. Hundreds line the rise to the summit, a tunnel of smiling faces. Like a stage in the Tour, hands reach out to give me a push.

But this is not France. This is Rwanda. The cheering crowds are not the rabid Basque fans who fill Pyrenees in July, but Rwandan students finished with school for the day. Yells of komera! ("be strong!") replace venga! and allez!

Heart rate through the roof, lungs burning, pedal stroke erratic. As I round a bend in the road, I am hit by a wall of excited screams. Hundreds line the rise to the summit, a tunnel of smiling faces. Like a stage in the Tour, hands reach out to give me a push.

But this is not France. This is Rwanda. The cheering crowds are not the rabid Basque fans who fill Pyrenees in July, but Rwandan students finished with school for the day. Yells of komera! ("be strong!") replace venga! and allez!

Could this really be the country that barely a decade ago filled our television screens with pictures of machete wielding mobs and mutilated bodies? Where are the pickups full of gun toting militia? Isn't this supposed to be one of the most dangerous countries in Africa?