To participate, email stevenbhardwaj@gmail.com or post a comment anywhere on this website!

Monday, May 30, 2011

15th St / Gisenyi / Goma Connections

Dear Representatives of:
  15th St Friends Meeting,
  Gisenyi Friends Church,
  OJEPAC (Organization of Youth Peacemakers - Gisenyi)
  Youth Peace Fellowship - (Mutura Friends Church), and
  Friends Church - Kayove,

I have read your recent emails and blog posts - thanks very much!  I am very happy to see that you are continuing to document your activities as well as transmit the reports.  In this email I present your websites to members of the 15th Street Meeting community.

OJEPAC's documentation is especially beautiful and impressive, including presentation activities, as well as the reports reports from the active Quaker youth group in Mutura village!  Here is a link to OJEPAC's blog, with dozens of pictures and short articles, an here is a link to a Google-translated English version of OJEPAC's report of its current weekly activities.

Our 15th St. Meeting's "First Day School" met yesterday Sunday 5/30/2011.  As you are reporting your youth groups' activities, we also plan to begin narrative and financial reports of our activities online.  Here is a link to our first short report with a photo.

I will highlight some particular activities in Gisenyi that OJEPAC has reported.  This is for the benefit of Friends at 15th St. Meeting, who are very interested in continuing our relationships with youth, younger children, and adults in Gisenyi:
  • Many impressive cultural and community-building activities!
  • Reports from (Quaker) Youth Peace Fellowship - Mutura.  Includes cultural activities, micro-enterprise, farming, and peace ministries.
  • Elisee met with Agrippine from Gisenyi Friends Church about continuing communications between the youth and younger children in the church, and the FDS in New York.
  • OJEPAC met with Porsche Washington, a USA Peace Corps volunteer in Gisenyi to apply for a grant for an HIV prevention/awareness project.
  • Elisee met with teachers at local schools, looking to find ways to help OJEPAC's impressive work to become recognized and supported by Rwanda's Ministry of Education
The youth groups from Kayove village in Rwanda are doing peace discussions and sewing trainings.  Here is a link to Kayove's website

Youths from and Katindo neighborhood, Goma / Congo are also interested in correspondence and have sent descriptions of their activities.  and Goma/Katindo's website.  All the groups also sent paper materials that are currently being housed at 15th St. Meeting.

Hope you enjoy!

Peace,
-Steven Bhardwaj

Sunday, May 29, 2011

First Day School, Sunday 5-30-2011

15th St Meeting First Day School (FDS).
We discussed briefly the context of Quakers and AGLIs work in east Africa. We also reviewed different activities of FDS over the past year.
Lin mentioned interest in continuing international communications activities/work. Frederica is interested in connecting to FWA Burundi.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Francoise NYIRAPABWANIMANA

Dear Heidi,

It was great meeting you and Piper last Saturday and (beginning to) play Settlers of Catan!  I look forward to the next time meeting you!

Attached are the materials from the letter from Francoise NYIRAPABWANIMANA.  Francoise is on the left in the photo, and the translation is included below the email.  

Please "Reply to All" to this email and we'll get the message through.  I CC'd a number of people on the email, including Agrippine a member of the Gisenyi Church, Elisee from the OJEPAC youth group, Jean-Baptiste the president of the congregation, and posting to a blog.

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January 25, 2011

My name is Francoise Nyirampabwanimana.  I am very happy that you had the faith to write to me.  God bless you.

I ask you to please pray for me often, and I will do the same.  Through these prayers, we will grow our faith in God.

In return for your wishes, I wish all the best for you.
-Francoise Nyirampabwanimana
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