Wellington Rotary - Four Avenues of Service

About 1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in the civil war of Rwanda, leaving behind a country full of orphans and children with little hope for the future. But the world did little to prevent the genocide of 1994. One of every 7 men, women and children were slaughtered. Many Rwanda women were raped and infected with HIV. Children were left to grow up with no parents to guide them. Now, more than a decade later, the Central African country is plagued with AIDS and starvation - much of it a direct outgrowth of the war.

Claire Effiong founded the nonprofit Esther's Aid for orphans and Needy children, Inc. In 2000, with a vision, with the government's permission, to shelter and train many of the homeless orphans in the African country. She built an orphanage that houses about 300 children, and has developed training facilities to teach teenagers automotive repair, sewing and now commercial baking.

In July, the Wellington Rotary Club purchased a commercial oven ($1200.00) for the Esther's Aid, of Rwanda, Africa. It was shipped to Rwanda with other commercial kitchen items in a container that arrived in Rwanda just recently. Since then, we have become very friendly with Esther's Aid and are planning future projects with them. Esther's Aid sent us this letter of thank you for helping equip their new bakery...

Here is the letter of thank you we received.