Help CHG Raise $200 for Aline’s Kitchen in Rwanda

UPDATE: We did it! We raised the $200! Thank you so much to everyone who donated!

Sweet readers! We’re going to try something a little new today, and we’d love your help in making it happen, if at all possible.

Leigh and I have two friends, Betsy and Dolinda. For a few years now, these lovely ladies have been working closely with the Ubushobozi Project, an organization based in Rwanda that offers vocational skills training to impoverished, orphaned and/or head-of-household teenage girls, many of whom have very little chance of continuing their educations and/or making steady livings. One of the girls enrolled in Ubushobozi 17-year-old Aline.

Here she is!

Aline has been with Ubushobozi since 2008. Her parents have been gone for a long, long time, both under some pretty terrible circumstances. So, she takes care of her two sisters, Diane, 12, and Olive, 19. Aline also provides meals for several local children, and even allows them to sleep in her home. “She will feed five to six village kids at a time with just one big plate - just a giving, good, good, person,” says Betsy.

This is her kitchen.

Betsy says: “She must cook outside and when it rains, she either goes to an elderly friend's house nearby to cook or, quite often, she can't cook at all and she and her sisters don't eat.”

We were thinking that we’d love, love to get Aline a new kitchen - a charcoal burner, some serving dishes, and a few cooking implements. The whole deal, plus labor, would run about $200 USD – less than a stand mixer.

And sweet readers, we’d love your help.

Think of it! Together, we can make a direct, wonderful difference in Aline’s life, not to mention all the people she feeds on a regular basis.

Here are some things to know:

• To donate, head to the Ubushobozi Donation Page (linked) and click "Donate" on the right hand side. Then, enter your information in PayPal, and on the 2nd page, write "For Aline's Kitchen" in the "message" box. (I tried it! It works!)
• All 100 percent of your donation will be directly applied to Aline’s kitchen - labor and materials (tin, mud bricks, wood, etc.). Nothing goes towards administrative fees.
• Any donation amount - $5, $10, $20 – is totally great. No need to break the bank.
• We have until April 21.

Once we raise the fundage, Aline will photograph the entire process, from construction to the first meal she cooks, and I’ll post it on CHG. When Betsy mentioned the idea to Aline, she replied that, “Everyone come visit her new kitchen to eat. She will cook for everyone.”

What do you guys think? Let’s do this thing! As the Ubushobozi girls would say, “Everybody happiness!”