Here are some photos of Linda's latest visit to Shyira. Posted 8th July 2012 Linda Lane writes: I first heard about Shyira in north west Rwanda as a member of the Mid Africa Concern (MAC) parcel group at St Mary's. In 2006 I went out to Rwanda with a CMS Praxis group and we visited Shyira which is one of the communities that MAC send parcels to. I made a further visit in February 2011 when Christine Smith from St Mary's came with me, with a group from Formby, near Liverpool. On my visit in 2011 there were two weddings at Shyira and one of the brides had difficulty in finding a wedding dress to hire so the group all contributed to provide the wedding dress that was obtained from a town some distance away as there was no local supply. Later in 2011 a local dress shop in Great Baddow was closing down and selling designer ladies wear at greatly reduced prices! My husband Mike told me about this as our daughter is getting married in 2012 and he thought I could probably find an outfit to wear at her wedding. When I visited the shop I was amazed at the number of outfits on offer and I thought again about the need for Shyira to have their own dress hire agency, so I bought several outfits on that first visit and more on subsequent visits! Since then I have also received donations of wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses. On January 17th I will be taking as many as I can carry in my luggage with me in order to set up the dress hire agency and anticipate that others will need to be sent out via container along with other goods being sent by the MAC group. Pastor Anthony from St Mark's church Shyira writes: Thank you for the arrangement of ladies outfits, this will solve a very big problem here. God guided you to think wisely on our behalf. Thank you again for keeping us in your memory. Pastor Anthony Ruzindana |
Shyira Project |