Church Plans Orphanage in Rwanda

A church group is setting up one of the first American-sponsored orphanages in Rwanda since tribal violence there left tens of thousands of children without parents or separated from relatives they may never see again.

Safe Harbor Ministries, with the Calvary Chapel of Rancho Santa Margarita, hopes to open the tent city to accommodate about 3,000 children near the end of September, said Bob Krantz, acting director. It would eventually work with world relief organizations to get the children adopted.

“These children, many of whom are under 5, . . . have been left to fend for themselves,” Krantz said. “We want to take them in and give them some relative stability.”

Krantz said he believes this would be the first American-organized orphanage for Rwandan children.

“Other organizations have brought in food, water and medical supplies,” he said. “We’re pleased that we have the chance to do something more.”

A three-member Safe Harbor delegation traveled to the Rwanda-Uganda border this month. It met with an African Presbyterian mission that had indicated it would allow Safe Harbor to set up a makeshift orphanage on a parcel of land belonging to the mission.

Krantz said the deal has been made final, and volunteers from medical institutions will go there late next month to set up medical, food and living tents for children.

Safe Harbor is accepting donations from hundreds of churches and social groups nationwide and from organizations like World Relief, World Vision and Food for the Hungry to raise $240,000 to set up the orphanage, Krantz said.

There are between 100,000 and 180,000 unaccompanied and traumatized children in refugee camps along the Rwandan borders with neighboring countries. A truck sent by the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, travels daily across eastern Zaire, collecting the abandoned children.

Early in the month, some 7,400 unaccompanied children had been collected in Munigi by relief workers.

The Safe Harbor delegation dispensed medical supplies and baby products. Each day the camps and African-run orphanages exceed their capacity, and each day more children are brought in or wander in to the camps.