Dear Friends and Supporters,
On this New Year's morning I am reflecting back to our accomplishments of the last year. At the beginning of 2015, AIGINET led a first and fruitful cultural exchange trip to listen and learn the challenges and needs of communities we serve in Adar Tubahoze and Duhozanye. We took the time to celebrate with them and donated three cows purchased with our collective fundraising efforts. Rooted in the Rwandan culture, the gift of a cow is highly regarded as an economic empowerment tool and a successful model for addressing poverty at the grassroots level. We were also able to meet the aspirations of Adar Tubahoze by providing a corn processing mill purchased and installed through the generosity of two of AIGINET’s supporters.
These are two tangible gifts that have changed the lives of 30 residents at Adar Tubahoze and one widow at Duhozanye. During the summer, we also coordinated a primary and emergency care training delivered by a US-based medical team to ten nurses at the medical center of Rango, to better serve children with disabilities at Adar Tubahoze. Together we can be proud of these meaningful achievements to date with the support of a dedicated team and the generosity of friends like you. We would like to thank you for standing with us this past year.
As I look out on this bright new day of a new year, I feel certain that we can accomplish even more in 2016. Already we have been making progress. This month we will embark on our second cultural exchange trip, working even harder to finalize the proposals aimed at improving the welfare of the communities on a bigger scale. Our sincere gratitude goes to those who joined our recent holiday party and supported our “Operation Cow Campaign” so that we may provide the gift of a cow again this year. It is also our joy to announce that a social worker from Duhozanye will be attending a 2016 training at the Empowerment Institute which will further the goals for the development of Babehafi, Senior Center. As an all volunteer run organization, AIGINET relies on help from caring people like you. There many ways to get involved. I hope we can count on you for support again in 2016. Please consider a new year donation towards Operation Cow or join us as a volunteer.
AIGINET and the team send you heartfelt wishes of a promising and fulfilling New Year 2016.
Sincerely yours,
Claire Umubyeyi
