Rwanda is one of the smallest countries on the African continent, and the most densely populated one. There are around 463 inhabitants per 1km2 here! Due to its natural landscape, Rwanda is sometimes referred to as a land of a thousand hills, and due to its history, also a land of a thousand problems.
“The hell is surely empty now, all devils are in Rwanda” said one priest about this beautiful, small, hilly country 20 years ago, when he witnessed the genocide. The genocide, which was talked about around the world, which has still remained in the hearts of Rwandans like a thorn…
We don’t want to contemplate the evil or write stories about what it’s like to strip people of their dignity. We want to help the sisters, who work so hard every day to give them back their dignity. The Polish congregation of Sisters of Angels has maintained a small hospice in Kabuga, which is the first and the only one in Rwanda so far. Twenty beds, about a dozen staff.
When I visited the patients for the first time, I knew there was no better place to live by the rule of the Good Factory Foundation – the best way of struggling against the evil world is to create the world of good. The patients come to us for several months, more often – for a few days, several hours. Several priceless hours, during which we can drag them from the world of hopelessness to the world of hope. Show them that the one going away is still a human being, that death can be experienced with dignity, that it doesn’t have to be brought about by a machete in the middle of a swamp.
One day of a patient’s stay in the hospice costs 12 EUR. By giving it to the suffering and the lonely, we tell them: “You don’t need to worry any longer”.
We won’t cure death, but we can do our best to make sure people in the terminal stage of AIDS or cancer don’t die of hunger or pain. Our task is simple. Some of these people have been through a total hell because of history and because of their illness. When they come to us, we want to remind them that the ultimate goal of humans is heaven.
18.08.2023
“We were frightened when she fell over. But the really chilling thing was the silence when, instead of crying, she didn’t get up. You could feel that the whole world was holding its breath. We only keep in touch with Melat’s dad via WhatsApp, as he has never stopped looking to the farthest corners of […]
05.06.2023
“She is our mother. She loves us very much. Mum, you know she does, don’t you?”, Teresa says. The woman has suffered a stroke and is paralysed. However, she has no problem throwing herself into Sister Maria’s arms, hugging her and talking as if she were her mother. Teresa has been in the hospice in […]
21.03.2023
The Good Factory Foundation has always been about the people. This is also the case in Kabuga, Rwanda. We do not run a project here called ‘hospice’. For us, it is the patients and staff whose stories are intertwined in the hospice centre. We care for them, often going beyond the walls of the centre. […]
