Twenty eight orphans and abandoned children, last week, received a new home in Gacaca sector, Musanze district.The home, dubbed ‘New Hope Home,’ is worth Rfw300 million and was built by Chantal Mbanda, a returnee with support from donors.“I used to meet street children and was shocked. So I told my husband that once I returned to Rwanda, I will start the project to help them move from that sad situation,” she said.“In 2005 when I returned from USA, I said it was my opportunity to start the project but the challenge was that I had no means. I told a friend about the project and she asked me to give her a proposal of what I wanted to do. I submitted and got support.” Mbanda started the project with 11 children in Kigali’s Kicukiro district working in rented premises before moving to Musanze in 2006. “I tell people that I have 31 children and they laugh, these children used to be orphans but it is not the case now, these are my children, I can educate them, feed them, and even die for them as my own. When I am with them I don’t see any difference between them and my real children,” the mother of three said.The building is located on specious land which will be cultivated to feed the children. The children will also be trained in agriculture and livestock farming.Some of the children are in nursery, primary and one of them is in secondary school.The children were picked from various areas of the country. Some of them were found abandoned by their parents as infants, weeks after birth.During the commissioning of the building at the weekend the Governor of Northern Province, Aimé Bosenibamwe, commended Mbanda for taking on the children as her own.“This is not an orphanage; it is a home of Mbanda’s children. What she did is a tangible example which should be emulated by other well–wishers of Rwanda to strengthen the culture of self-reliance.,” said Bosenibamwe.
