6th September 2011

On Saturday we travelled by bus from Kamembe
to Giterama, a town an hour from Kigali. We met Leoncie who runs a
large centre for disabled children in the town and Gervaise, the
secretary for Tubakunde,
the association of centres for disabled children in Rwanda. Leoncie
founded Tubakunde,
and she was able to give us a general picture of the struggles of
centres like hers and the two we have been working at. She
described the stigma that still exists around disability, and the
fact that from time to time they still discover children who have
been hidden away in houses all their lives, a source of shame for
their families.

Leoncie and Gervaise are very enthusiastic
about potential future plans for music as therapy training to be
extended throughout the Tubakunde network, with the staff from Ngwino Nawe and
Nkanka eventually training others. It was also very interesting for
us to visit another centre and meet the children there.

We have been in Kigali for the past few days,
in preparation for our flight home. It has been a real change from
Kamembe and we feel we are starting to get our bearings around the
city, including getting the hang of the local buses. Yesterday we
had an adventure carrying a large drum each across the city and
home in a minibus-taxi. We drew many highly bemused stares, and
several people came over to play on the drums as we carried
them!

Many thanks for all your support,

Murakose chane!

Nicky and Caroline