It was an emotional day as vulnerable families from Rukili 2 cell turned up for a Christmas party organised by Christ Embassy, a Kigali based church to celebrate the Christmas season. 800 children from the first and second Ubudehe categories mainly residents of the Rukili 2 cell, Masaka, and Nyanza were hosted by the Giporoso-based church, accompanied by parents for an event aimed at giving them a good festive season as well as comforting them. The church paid school fees for 25 of the children, as well as donating to the hundreds of children materials including food for taking like sugar and rice, as well as scholastic materials, toys, footballs; and engaging them in playing and singing to enjoy the day. To carry out the event, the church based on the 8th chapter of Nehemiah in the Bible, which on its 10th Verse urges people to eat and drink but also send portions to those who nothing have nothing prepared for them. “As a church, we do not only focus only on spiritual work, we go a step further and look at the society in which we operate and lend a hand to those less fortunate and today we chose Remera as one of our neighbourhoods,” said Francine Gatarayiha, the Head of the of Inner City Mission Church which is the church’s outreach arm to the vulnerable. “These materials will help us in our scholastic life,” said Fred Sangwa a 10-year old who was among the attending children. Françoise Niyonsaba, the Executive Secretary of Rukili 2 cell narrated to the church members the background and the hardships some of the citizens pass through to raise the social welfare of the children as well as their families. She said some of the families in the village are seriously vulnerable and support like this from different organizations gives them strength and encourages the authorities to keep helping. “As you all know it requires a lot of patience to carry out something like this, but we really get uplifted by people and organizations that come out to lend us a hand in different ways,” she happily said. “They (care our regular partners in community services like this one, paying Mutuelle de Santé for vulnerable families. At the beginning of this month also, they went to CHUK and recharge around 20 patients who had failed to pay their bills,” she added.
