The following day we hitched a ride with the Visiting Orphans group and returned to Noel to hang out with the children. I am so glad that we decided to spend some time at Noel, to give Alain a chance to be with his friends again and for us to reconnect with the children from our first trip. Emotionally, it was difficult. Many of the children remembered us and knew that we would be taking Alain with us. They seemed to understand that would could not take them all, but that did not stop several of them from asking us to. It is heartbreaking. I believe that every child deserves a family, someone to give them personal attention. For many of these children, that will never happen.
At this time, the Rwandan government is working to “reunify” the children of Noel with any living family members that they may have. You can read Tara’s post about the reunification here. There is another article about the reunification here. In a nutshell (in my opinion), they are trying to make it appear as though Rwanda has fewer orphans by manipulating family members who either do not want these children or absolutely cannot care for these children to take them out of Noel so that they can use the Noel Orphanage grounds for other purposes. Not cool, not cool at all. Say some big prayers for our friends at Noel. No child should be traded for a cow. Seriously infuriates me. Children being pawns in politics is absolutely crazy. I could go on and on. We are blessed to have one, here with us and safe, but there are so many others. It seems like there is nothing that can be done to stop it. Tara is working on opportunities for the older children so that they will have job skills to support themselves when they are no longer allowed to live at Noel. I will keep you updated on how you can help :)
-Jenn
by Jenn
2 comments