“People today certainly need words, but most of all they need us to bear witness to the mercy and tenderness of the Lord, which warms the heart, rekindles hope, and attracts people towards the good. What a joy it is to bring God’s consolation to others!” Pope Francis
Inserted in a rural and mountainous environment in the Northern Province of Rwanda, the community of Rwankuba bears witness to the tenderness of God through 4 main educational activities.
Since 1966, the sisters in collaboration with the laity have provided curative and preventive care in the Rwankuba health center through the services of: curative consultation, laboratory, pharmacy, maternity, prenatal consultation, vaccination, hospitalization, nutritional services, natural family planning, mutual health insurance, advice and care for people living with HIV AIDS. These services are provided for a population of more than 12,322 inhabitants in two administrative sectors of Rushashi and Muyongwe. The health center remains the main mission of our community and the health reference for our region.
Since 2018, the province has entrusted the Rwankuba community with the training of our aspirants and since then, three generations trained in the Rwankuba community have taken their first vows. The aspirants are also trained to lead children aged 5 to 13 who are preparing for the sacraments of Christian initiation. On September 8, 2023 we had the joy of celebrating the nativity of the Mother of God by welcoming eight (8) new aspirants from different dioceses of our country.
Rwankuba is the cradle of two young parish congregations founded by two of our sisters: Sister Catherine Geneviève who founded the congregation “LES AMIS DES PAUVRES”; the congregation is already recognized. Sister Marie Deogratias is the founder of the Congregation “DES SERVANTES FROM MARIE". Our community of Rwankuba provides religious training for the sisters of the Congregation of the Servants of Mary so that it will be recognized and accepted in the Archdiocese of Kigali.
“Love never says enough is enough” MME. In order to have a greater proximity to the poor, since March 2022 we have initiated a shoe making and sewing project for young poor boys and girls, especially those who have not been able to complete their secondary education.
Even if our community of Rwankuba has been kept in a poor environment since its foundation, it is in continual discernment making these words of Saint Marie Eugénie its own: “The most humble, the most obscure, the most despised existence has for God a deep interest, he follows all its movements, he observes its phases” and the call of Pope Francis: “The Church is called to come out of herself and go towards the peripheries, not just geographical but also those of existence, those of the mystery of sin, of suffering, of injustice, those of ignorance and absence of faith, those of thought, those of all forms of misery”.