July Trip Update: Not Just Any Other Play Park!

Here are plans for the play park we will be building at the school in Kigali during our July trip. As you can see, it's a pretty incredible project, made possible by the amazing people at Newline Skateparks.

As well as building the park, we will also be running two youth camps and meeting with families in poverty and helping them by funding an income generating initiative. We'll also be helping renovate the school.

As well as our personal costs, we need to raise $50,000 to do all of this and we'd like to ask for your help. Please would you consider making a donation to help make this happen? All you have to do is click on the donate tab. All donations are tax deductible. Just follow the prompts to the donation page and click on Rwanda Elevation Project in the fund designation box.

Thanks for helping change their world!!

An Invitation to Elevate Rwanda

Following on from the success of our large trip out to support the Elevation project in Rwanda in 2008, Greater Vancouver Youth Unlimited is currently planning for our next large trip in July of 2010.

Our aim is to see lives changed both for those who join the team and for those in Rwanda that we work with.

Among other things, during the trip we will be:

• Running two youth camps
• Undertaking school renovations
• Building a high end play park [in conjunction with a team from newline Skateparks]
• Being involved in local communities

We are looking for youth and young adults who not only want to be part of this life changing adventure, but who are committed to having an ongoing involvement back in Canada, including raising awareness, helping raise child sponsorships, special events, presentations and more.

Our Canadian team will also be accompanied by a group of experienced youth workers from Greater Vancouver Youth Unlimited and will be taught the skills they need in order to do a great job. The team will be partnered with a similar group of Rwandan young people and we will show that together, we can bring hope to one of the poorest places imaginable. You can expect to be stretched and transformed as you have your life changed by this incredible experience. It's certainly not something for the faint hearted!

Approximate dates for the trip are July 7th to 29th 2010. The cost is expected to be $3700. 

If you think you might like to be part of this project, we would like to invite you to join us for an information night at 7pm on Tuesday, December 8th at the Youth Unlimited office - 115-12975, 84th Avenue, Surrey.

For more information contact Gloria at the Youth Unlimited office - 604.590.3759

Come and help us change the world!

The Elevate Rwanda team

• Running two youth camps
• Undertaking school renovations
• Building a high end play park [ in conjunction with a team from Newline Skateparks ]
• Being involved in local communities.

Dear friends,

In February of 2009 a team from Vancouver visited the project in Kigali to get an update and to look at the future.

It was an amazing trip for all concerned with so much to talk about and so many rich experiences. It's such a privilege to be there with those wonderful people and to feel that we can be part of serving them.

We had some great discussions and have been inspired to do more. As a result, we are going to run another set of youth camps for the kids next year and we'll be working alongside New Line Skate Parks to launch "Play Rwanda". During the camp we'll build a really great adventure play area for the Kigali Christian School and we'll look at some other possibilities for sports as well.

Kellie Gillespie, our Teen Moms Program Director is supporting the women's program we run for HIV positive mothers and will be looking at running a training conference for crisis support counseling this summer. We are also supporting and covering some of the costs for the food for thought program to feed hungry kids who we sponsor at the school.

One great thing is that we have partnered with Opportunity International, a large micro finance organisation in Rwanda and we will be working to get many of the mothers into income generating projects, once they graduate from the crisis support program. Below is a picture of one of the wonderful women we are helping.

There are other things we are working on as well, including building the sponsorship program, possibly placing some of our team here for a while and having trips from the team here to Vancouver.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support. It was hard to get back on the plane but we know we'll be back. We also know we come home with a renewed determination to serve this incredible ministry and to be part of Gods solution to the many needs here in this wonderful yet wounded country.


Andy Harrington
Executive Director
Greater Vancouver YFC/youth Unlimited

Greater Vancouver Youth For Christ's latest initiative to empower the disadvantaged women of Rwanda: The Umatima [Heart] Project.

Below is a video with the latest Rwanda updates.

Click here to check out the latest news and writings from the team in Rwanda. Rwanda trip Blog Page

On a recent visit to Rwanda many of the children we support had a special message they wanted to give to their sponsors. Please click the link below to see it. If you would like to change a child's life by becoming a sponsor, please click here.