News....and delays..

Well we were just about to book our flights, when we heard that the project co-ordinator wouldn't be able to be at the centre on the dates we had arranged - not for the whole time at least. They very hekpfully offered to meet us for one week..but after lots of considerastion, we made the difficult decision to postpone until later in the year.

We really wanted to maximise the time we could volunteer at the centre - I have limited annual leave and Toby is booked up for his work well in advance...changing the date wouldnt' have worked on several fronts.

Also..sadly my cat who is nearly 19 has been unwell and has been getting worse - she lost alot of weight over Christmas and to be honest I was worried about leaving her.

So..all in all, although we were just on the brink of going and so excited...we both feel things happen fpr a reason and possibly it wasn't the right time just at the moment.

However, we will be continuing to fundraise for rYico and hope to hold some events during the summer..we will keep you posted !

Thanks for reading ..and please keep in touch !

Louise and Toby

Oxford United Football Shirt !!

After struggling to upload photos last night, we can now proudly show one of the fab football shirts Oxford United have donated  to rYico, the Rwandan charity we are volunteering for in a few weeks. It is great to have the support of a local football team and we hope to keep them updated on our travels !

 

ps....thanks Toby for modelling ! As mentioned before, I was very lucky to get Toby into a football shirt  !( it is not his favourite sport at all - although I dare say the children may persuade him otherwise when we get to Rwanda !!)

Photo Fiasco !

Well...those who know Toby will be amazed to hear I managed to get him to put on one of the football shirts kindly donated by Oxford United.. however...we're having problems uploading it.. How frustrating! We will try again tomorrow !! ...Don't forget to have a look !!!

Shirts and Photoshoot ....

 

Louise and Peter Rhoades-Brown, Business Development Manager at Oxford United Football Club. Peter is very keen on community based projects and also supports a project in Sierra Leone...thanks again Peter !

Oxford United Donation !!

I had a very exciting visit to Oxford United Football Club today ! After a chat to Peter Rhoades-Brown Business Development Manager at the club, they donated a box full of football shirts to rYico....the project we will be working for in Kigali.

Viv had described how much the children love football so we're sure they will love these ! Peter also supports a project in Sierra Leone...it is so inspiring to know other people and organisations want to do what they can for projects like rYico - and ultimately help make a difference to the people there.... 

 

         A Massive Thankyou to Oxford United !!!!

Raising funds for rYico.....

Meeting Viv and watching the dvd about the Centre that she had given us, gave us real food for thought... Although our funds for flights are low, we would really like some of the donation money to go directly to Centre Marembo. A small amount can go a long way over there.

We would like to give at least half the money raised to the Centre, with what's left to go towards our flights.

If you would prefer your donation to go to directly to the Centre, please let us know....

As well as offering our time there, we would really like to continue to raise funds for the Centre on our return.

The Date...!!

We are now aiming to leave on the 15th February and return on the 1st March.

                       Any donations greatfully appreciated !

The Project...

Yesterday we visited the rYico project office in Brighton, UK. We met Vivenie Mugunga Co-Founder of the project and her son Akim. The aim of the meeting was really to get to grips with what our roles would be at the project in Kigali, Rwanda organise dates and to gain further information about our trip out there.

 

The move of buildings for the centre is not as imminent as originally thought due to government bureaucracy, however after chatting to Viv, we found there is still plenty to do out there. We talked at length about our own skills and unpicked how we could match our own fields to the needs of the centre. The centre does so many amazing things - providing a home for many displaced children, training them in life skills, enabling schooling and reintegration advice for children who can be returned to their communities.

 

As the centre move is not happening for a while, Toby will be involved in working with the young people to design and redecorate existing rooms, building shelves and generally making the rooms more appealing.

 

Since the original website was lost, it has been difficult for Viv to find the time to add to the new webpage. We will both be contributing to this by taking photo's of staff, acitvities and trying to tell the story of some of the children there. This year is the 10 year anniversary of the organisation. We are hoping to help to compile a book to show how far it has come in this time.

 

Through our discussion, we realised that in two weeks, we weren't going to have the time to plan and deliver educational training. However, on this our first trip we are hoping to get to know the centre, staff and children and over time be able to continue our support and next time become more involved with the training side of the project.

It was amazing to talk to Viv - herself a survivor of the Rwandan genocide ...a sobering reminder of the terrible bloodshed Rwanda has seen in the not so distant past. In contrast Viv's enthuisiasm and positivity left us inspired and even more excited about going out to Rwanda in order to help this very grassroots, community led organisation that really does make a difference to the children and people that need it most.

After seeing Viv we went to vist our good friend Dave who in 2005 donated a sizeable sum of money to the project which enabled Viv and her colleagues to really get the project off the ground. He is seen as their founding member as without this they were struggling to raise enough money. It was great to catch up with him and we were treated to a fantastic veggie curry ...thanks Dave ! We look forward to keeping in touch with Dave as our plans progress.

Volunteer rYico Rwanda...

Hi All, 

Our aim is to volunteer for an amazing Rwandan charity - called rYico ..find them at http://ryico.org/  They do amazing work for Rwandan children throught their Centre Marembo - a youth resource in the capital Kigali which suppports young people who have been orphaned, neglected or left in very difficult conditiions for a variety of reasons.  They have been looking for volunteers to help them set up their new buildings as well as help train their staff in educational techniques and crafts. We would like to go out for two weeks intially. We are hoping to raise the money for our flights out there over the next few months.           

                 We would really appreciate any donation you can afford ! Please  scroll down and look for the Paypal button below ...any donations go straight to our charity account.

 

We will keep you up to date with our fundraising and work as soon as we get there !

 

                                 Many Thanks ! Louise and Toby :)

Thankyou very much for our first three donations! We now have a total of £210 from different contributors... This is a brilliant start...We of course respect peoples privacy, if however you would like your name to appear with your donation please let Louise know... Cheers Toby