O.C. Missionaries Aid Rwandan Orphans : Suffering: Safe Harbor group members return to tell of plight of many seriously ill youngsters badly in need of medical treatment and antibiotics.

A team of Orange County missionaries who recently returned from Rwanda said they found orphans with pneumonia and tuberculosis and no medicine to treat them, children with raging ear infections, and a child considered deaf but who could hear if only he had a hearing aid.

The 12-day trip by Safe Harbor International, which is part of Calvary Chapel in Rancho Santa Margarita, took the missionaries to orphanages bursting with children.

“The children were very excited to see us,” said Ron Neely, the director of Safe Harbor. But, he said, “Some of them were really sick so we had to scramble to diagnose them and get them treatment.”

In Kayonza, 36 miles from the capital, Kigali, the team transported an 8-year-old boy weighing only 29 pounds and suffering a 106-degree fever from tuberculosis to the local hospital for treatment. Team members also fitted the hearing-impaired child for a hearing aid that will be manufactured in neighboring Uganda and sent to the orphanage as soon as possible.

Neely, a Lake Forest resident, also was on Safe Harbor’s first relief mission to Rwanda in August. During that trip, the three missionaries established contact with the Kayonza orphanage, whose population has increased from 120 to 137 children, and delivered diapers, water purifiers and food donated by other relief organizations in Kigali.

Since the August trip Safe Harbor has used a Ugandan contact to deliver 150 bunk beds, mattresses, sheets, pillows and sandals to the Kayonza orphanage. On this trip, the group delivered 2 1/2 tons of food, mostly beans and flour, as well as medicine.

Kelly Ruff, a registered nurse who traveled with Safe Harbor, said she found the medical conditions distressing but the sense of accomplishment rewarding. She prescribed antibiotics, cleaned up wounds and dispensed aspirin and vitamins for hundreds of children.

“There is so much need there, the need can be overwhelming,” she said. “But if everyone did their part you could all have contributions, and make a difference.”

She said one sight that still haunts her was a field of clothed skeletons less than a mile from the Kayonza orphanage. One orphan even was playing with a skull, kicking it around the front yard.

“Some of the children are numb,” Ruff said. “They’ve seen so much. Their emotions have just been seared by this war. Those children need a lot of help emotionally.”

“I am motivated by love to help them,” Neely said. “We can share our abundance. That’s the minimum we can do. We will continue to support the children through the duration.”