Thank you for visiting my fundraising page!  I deeply appreciate your support.  One of the things that attracted me to this mission was the opportunity to be part of creating something that could really make a difference in bringing peace to our world.  You have now become part of that mission.  Please forward this to anyone you think might be inspired to help.


I have been more deeply affected by my work with genocide orphans in Rwanda than any previous life experience.  Despite witnessing and experiencing atrocities that the mere description of them left me literally breathless, these young people are the most loving, appreciative and creative I have met.  If these students who lived through the worst that can be done by human beings can heal and forgive, anyone can.  In the four years Project LIGHT has been there, the orphanage went from the brink of being shut down because of trauma outbreaks and inability to educate, to being considered a model school for the region.

Nevertheless, their needs continue to be overwhelming.  When they graduate from the high school orphanage, even though we have increased the passing rate on the government test that allows them to go to a university to 86%, there are no funds for students to enroll.  They can't stay at the orphanage and there are almost no training programs or jobs available.  Most have no family to go live with or help them out, and many end up sharing tiny quarters or on the streets in the capital city of Kigali.

When we asked them what they really needed, they said they need help to heal the trauma, they need to be taught skills and guided to find work, and to learn how to help others.  Project LIGHT starts with rapid trauma healing; then an assessment of their talents & needs; then heart-centered transformational leadership training, and then completes with entrepreneurship training and setting them up in a green business incubator.  When youth have hope for a future in which they can provide for their needs and those of their families and they have been able to clear their debilitating memories to find inner peace, they have no need to create violence.  Our first Project LIGHT Ambassadors exceeded our dreams, and have become beacons of creativity, hope, service and success.  They have already made the money to pay back our loan to them in just two months.  Project LIGHT is an opportunity to make a real difference in healing a nation, and can be an example for many other violence-torn communities.  For the latest update & to read what the Ambassadors said, go to http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=fd6017b8fbcfa1da54f3ea501&id=07971c8c82&e=fb480a04ff.