Arrival in Rusumo
We went to the mountains near Rusumo, where a cluster of huts surrounded an orphanage that also served as a small hospital. Dirty, rickety children wandered the street alongside skin-and-bone animals on the red earth, where everything turns to mud when it rains. In Rwanda not everyone has access to clean water. During the rainy season villagers resort to puddles, and 50% of the population lives on less than $2 a day.
The small hospital
Once the materials were sorted, Marianna took me to see the centre. It was not my first time in Africa and I had low expectations, but seeing such a battered medical centre was a stab in the heart.
Rooms crowded with children, broken windows, flooring missing in places and electricity that came and went constantly. Having a place to go when you need care should not be a privilege but a right, and certainly here in Rwanda only the lucky ones get to use a run-down facility like this one.
Difficult conditions
In a small room there were two children, skin listless and traumatised by unspeakable abuse. Both orphans. Marianna ran the work without arrogance or any air of weariness; she delegated to the other girls at the centre with grace and, rather than complaining, said how good it was to work with the medicines we had brought.
Working in remote areas is certainly more costly and harder, and extremely complicated when it comes to finding staff willing to stay in an isolated place where often you do not even know what to cook, with so little food available.
A message of hope
Every small gesture can become a beacon of hope for those living in the darkness of poverty and neglect. Through our shared commitment, we can offer opportunity, education and dignity to those who need it most. It is a journey that takes courage, but the children's smiles, their gratitude and their potential remind us that every effort is worth it.
