SOS! We need help to continue with the feeding program at the prison in Bukavu! Presently, $1,000 provides 2 meals A WEEK – that’s not a day – for the nearly 2,000 inmates for a month. A kind of porridge is also provided for those who are already very ill for a breakfast meal. Most are men, some are women, often with babies, other homeless boys. Sadly, we recently discovered some of those boys are under the age of 14 and have NO CHANCE of getting out.
The inmates are VERY grateful when our co-workers arrive with each meal and express it readily. It is true that no one has died since we began this feeding program. They know they have a very short life expectancy due to starvation without the care the people of America are showing them. They also know that it is the love of God in many of us that pushes us to help a people we will never know, in a place most of us will never go.
1) But…..is 2 meals a week enough? Until Congo is opens up again to let friends and family of the prisoners bring in food, I am hoping we can up the meals to at least 3 times a week. Additionally, we must buy bowls and cups so they don’t have to eat out of plastic bags or their shirt. Clothes, too, would help as most do not have a change of clothes. Our Tracy’s Heart ladies have already been sewing up hundreds of masks for the inmates because they had none.
We have concluded that we need a lump sum of $5000 to stockpile enough food to guarantee 3+ meals a week for several months, no stopping and starting.
2) Is there nothing we can do to alter the lives of boys who have no hope whatsoever? Normally they have done little or nothing wrong. They are orphans or boys who have escaped being kidnapped by rebel groups. No one wants them around. They are often dirty and people think they are only looking to steal. They are unable to go to school, though they deeply desire to, and are not welcome to play with other boys who have families. They scrounge for food by searching rubbish piles for some little thing to sell for pennies and buy a length of sugar cane or a beignet to eat. If they get picked up by the police they are taken directly to prison and can never get out without money and a home. Without family they WILL simply starve to death.
What about the boys 14 and under? What is it we can do is a huge question. Research has begun.
Herein may lie a fork in the road of what our work can be in Congo. The Lord says…“Wisdom is the principle thing: Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting get understanding.” So, we are asking God for wisdom and understanding in what can be done and how to do it. Without question this would take money! The right Lawyer to be hired, perhaps a place to be rented where street boys can sleep & have shelter, regular food is necessary and good people hired to care for them. We ask for prayer. It is difficult to know this and not be moved to action.
Hopefully, we will be returning to Congo in early October and oversee the work in greater detail. Please share this with people, churches, and businesses. We need your help. Thank you!
Under His Wings, ray and Jayn Harkema, HFCA
“True spirituality that is pure in the eyes of our Father God is to make a difference in the lives of the orphans and widows in their troubles, and to refuse to be corrupted by the world’s values.” James 1:27
Donate: PayPal c/o buildingbukavu@gmail.com
Checks to: Heart for Central Africa, The Harkemas,
PO Box 355, Middleville, MI 49333
Heart for Central Africa is a tax deductible 401(c)3
Building Bukavu is Ray and Jayn Harkema under HFCA