In early August, dollie husband Bill Simon attended a conference in Orange County, CA where he met a group of Catholic priests from Rwanda. Â During the course of their conversation he discovered that they run a large parish in the city of Kabgayi with an elementary school and orphanage attached. Â Of course he thought immediately of Dollies Making A Difference and sent the Bishop back to Africa with 8 dollies and 8 colorful teddy bears. Â Once we hear how they are received, we are eager to send them more!
I was curious to learn more about this tiny country, which experienced such horrific turmoil in its 1994 civil war.
The city of Kabgayi is in southern Rwanda and was established as a Catholic Church mission in 1905 by Belgian missionaries.  It became the center for the Roman Catholic Church in Rwanda and is the site of the oldest cathedral in the country, the Catholic Basilica of Our Lady, built in 1923.  Today, 64.2% of the 1,051,000 population of Rwanda are Catholic.
During the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, the church did not escape the tragic consequences of the civil war – in June 1994 its bishop was murdered along with the archbishop, a second bishop and 10 priests, allegedly by the Tutsi army.  Pope John Paul II made a direct appeal to the Rwandan people for peace. Following the war a book was written called Hope for Rwanda, where the author says, “Everything had to be rebuilt, all at the same time, without any resources.  Eighteen out of 87 priests had been killed…many were in exile.  We had to rebuild everything including the minds and bodies, public buildings, houses, families.  The diocese of Kabgayi is not only the biggest in Rwanda, it also had the largest number of inhabitants. Years after the genocide, thousands of memorials to victims dot our countryside – next to thriving churches, schools, and hospitals, beside busy roads, and on isolated, forgotten hilltops.  These sites of memory are part of the living landscape of Rwanda.  “
Here is a photo of Bishop Samragde Mbonyintege, the Bishop of Kabgayi, who took 16 of our dollies and colorful teddy bears to Rwanda. Â Hopefully, he will send back photos!
