‘One Love’ project gives new hope to Rwanda’s limbless

A promise made by a disabled Rwandan refugee 17 years ago to anybody willing to fight for his freedom has evolved into an international effort — and lifelong devotion — to offer for free artificial limbs, crutches and wheelchairs to anyone who may need them.

Founded in the hills of Rwanda during the civil war, his project has expanded to Burundi and is soon coming to Kenya.

Born in Kigali, Rwanda, Mr Gatera Rudasingwa was forced to flee his homeland in 1987 because of the Hutu-Tutsi conflict. Adding to his struggle was the fact that he had a disability – a legacy of a medical malpractice when he was a child. He needs a crutch and prosthesis legs to walk.

Ending up in Nairobi in 1989, Mr Rudasingwa met Ms Mami Yoshinda (now his wife), who had travelled to Kenya from Japan to learn Kiswahili. After Mami returned to Japan, Mr Rudasingwa tried to fly to Bujumbura, Burundi, but the flight meant a stopover in Rwanda.

When he arrived in Kigali, the Rwandese capital, “they (security agents) came onto the plane and said: “Everyone Rwandese this way, everyone else that way!” he told me in an interview when he and his wife came to Nairobi recently.

“I was handcuffed and taken to jail. They took all my money, cut my dreadlocks and locked me up just for being from Rwanda.”

An American friend of his heard of his plight and helped to arrange his release, travels to Burundi and return to Nairobi, where he received a letter from Mami inviting him to Japan.

“When he came to Japan in 1991, I saw his prosthetic leg was an antique, it was actually broken, so he got a new one,” she said.

During his time in Japan, Mr Rudasingwa convinced his wife to quit her job and go back to school to learn how to make orthopaedic and prosthetic limbs, because there was such a demand in his homeland.

“I told her: ‘If you love me like I love you, then you will go to school and take a change of scene, and we will live together in Rwanda. You need a job; and my country has so many people with disabilities that need help,’” he said.

After living in Japan for six months, Mr Rudasingwa told his wife he no longer wished to live like a refugee and would return to Africa, as she completed her training, and he would begin to set up a workshop.

It was 1992 and the Rwandan Patriotic Front was in the middle of the Rwandan civil war. At a camp in the town of Mulindi, in northern Rwanda, there was a podium from which any refugee could address a crowd as well as RPF leader and current Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

“I asked the soldiers to please keep fighting for us so that we could return home, and that if they lost their leg or arm in battle that we would earn them a prosthetic limb free of charge,” said Mr Rudasingwa, who extended the offer to civilians.

A year and a half later, the genocide began.

“The RPF stopped the genocide so we could go home, but there were so many people that needed help,” he pointed out. “They say 10 per cent of Rwandans have a physical disability of some sort.”

Now that peace has returned to Rwanda, Mr Rudasingwa does not wish to think along the divisive tribal lines that many people still try to place upon Rwanda.

“I don’t like to say what tribe I am, because I’m simply a Rwandan. I don’t look at Hutu or Tutsi, I only see one Rwanda,” he said.

From its beginning at the RPF base in Mulindi, the project eventually grew large enough to be moved to Kigali where it is currently headquartered.

The complex features an orthopaedic workshop, guesthouses and bungalows that can accommodate upto 100 people, two restaurants, a nightclub, a campsite and a conference centre.

Everything operates as a revenue-generator for the workshop, which continues to offer free prosthetic limbs and other equipment to anyone who can’t afford to go to a private clinic, a number Mr Rudasingwa estimates at 99 per cent.

Donations from Europe

“We get a lot of donations from Europe, America, Canada, Japan and other wealthier nations, but we can’t just rely on that,” he says. “Today there are donations, but tomorrow there may not be. Our goal is to be able to fund ourselves.”

By spending a night at the guesthouse or having drinks at the bar, anyone can contribute directly to the project as 100 per cent of all profits get funnelled into the workshop’s expansion.

The effort, named the Mulindi Japan One Love Project, is not limited to victims of the Rwandan civil war and genocide.

In fact, it’s not limited to Rwanda any more. Last year, the couple opened a One Love site in Bujumbura, Burundi, with the same mission of offering free orthopedics to anyone who needed them.

Their workshop is currently the only one offering such services for free in the entire country. International expansion plans are continuing and Kenya is next, said Mr Rudasingwa.