African Orphanages

Here are some of my personal photos from my time in Rwanda, Africa. I went on a business as missions trip with Baylor University's Social Entrepreneurship team! Our focus was on microfinance and how to help people help themselves, but I especially loved visiting the orphanages and playing soccer and other games with all the kids! All the children were so adorable I just wanted to take them all home with me!


We visited Rafiki Village in Kigali, and I was blown away by the level of discipline and organization that the staff had that ran this Christian-based orphanage. The kids there were so polite and happy and they were extremely intelligent. The school taught them both English and Kinyarwandan so that they could retain their Rwandan culture, and they integrated local children into the school so that the orphans could be exposed to life outside of their village. The school also stressed the idea that they did not want to see a "brain drain" and wanted to raise good Christian workers that would stay in Rwanda and be the leaders for the next generation.

We also visited another orphanage that took in street children in Kigali. It was an all-boys facility. They didn't have any silverware to eat with, some slept two to a bunk bed, and the building was literally falling down. It was so sad, but the work they were doing there was so noble. They could definitely use more support and funding. The youngest child was 8 and they basically let the children govern themselves by electing a slate of young directors that made all the important decisions. This bottom-up approach was really interesting and for the most part fairly successful.