During the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Hutu extremists in three months killed more than 900,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates. This equivalent to more than three 9/11 attacks per day. The reality is that innocent victims were slaughtered at the rate of more than 6 men, women and children every 60 seconds of each day for 100 days.

Hutu militia raped Tutsi women in a deliberate plan to use AIDS as a weapon that could go on killing long after they had murdered their other victims. An average of 4 women were violently sexually assaulted, most of them by HIV-positive men, every minute of every hour of each day for 100 consecutive days. An estimated 11% of all females, or approximately 535,000 women, living in Rwanda at the time of the genocide were victims of a concerted rape campaign.

As a direct result of the death and violence in 1994 there are more than 600,000 widows living in Rwanda. The population in Rwanda is estimated at close to 9 million people of which 4.2 million are children. 700,000 are orphans and 27,000 are living with HIV. Currently, 34% of the households in Rwanda are headed by women and 42,000 are headed by children. More than 67% of women who were raped in 1994 during the genocide are now facing death from AIDS.

Umuzabibu (Vineyard) Project

There are over 8,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the Musanze District of Rwanda. Many of the infected are widows of the 1994 Genocide and have no source of income to provide for themselves and their children. Although the Rwandan government distributes antiretroviral medications at no expense for those infected by HIV, the participants must eat nutritious meals in order for the medications to be effective. In a majority of the cases, these widows are too poor/sick to have a reliable income that will sustain provision for nutritious meals. Unless a nutritious meal is eaten along with the medication, the effects of HIV are accelerated. Therefore, most of the widows simply do not take the free medication. Many of their children are also HIV+. Lack of income means that a majority of the children are unable to attend school. In order for a child to attend public school, he or she must have a uniform and must be able to purchase needed materials. This costs approximately $50 per year.


True Vineyard Ministries, in collaboration with World Relief Organization (www.worldrelief.org) has begun the Umuzabibu Project. This project has greatly impacted the lives of ten widows by providing much needed housing, through local partners. In June we will be establishing long-term employment through a new local bakery, The Bread of Life. TVM is currently raising funds for this bakery with childcare facilities. These women will be employed and will work in a cooperative environment in the baking and selling of bread and in the childcare of non-school aged children. Since education is so vital in breaking the cycle of poverty, top priority will be given to ensuring the older children are in school. An education fund from bakery revenues will be established so that the children will continue to have a means for continuing their education long after they survive their mothers' deaths.

World Relief Organization in Rwanda worked through the Musanze Interfaith Committee, which is comprised of many different church denominations, to nominate these women as candidates for this project. As these women are adopted, the local church community in Musanze took responsibility for building their houses.

We pray that you, your church or your business will be moved to adopt one of these women and her children and invest in the bakery on her behalf. The bakery is estimated to cost $60,000. Should you have any questions regarding this project or want to know more specifics about these individual women, please contact us at blessed@truevineyard.org.