Our bodies may be here in Alberta selling houses, but our hearts are in Rwanda. We have chosen to make the Home of Hope in Rwanda the main beneficiary of our business. Here is a recent article published in Calgary Real Estate News that we have republished below:

The first thing local REALTOR® Dan Peters noticed when he stepped off the plane onto the runway in Rwanda was the incredible, lush countryside.

“I couldn’t believe how beautiful the country was,” said Peters. “It’s just hills of lush, green flowers and plants of such beauty that I didn’t know existed.”

“Beautiful country, absolutely amazing.”

Peters was in Rwanda last November as part of charity work with an organization called Home of Hope and he plans to return this coming winter.

The non-profit agency provides care for children who have been orphaned at a young age.

People involved in Home of Hope build homes for orphans and widows, as well as schools, medical facilities and churches.

The organization also provides micro-loan services to unemployed entrepreneurs. Peters assisted with the business training for potential micro-loan recipients while he was in Rwanda.

Micro-loans are often used to help individuals engage in self-employment projects, like farming, that allow them to generate income and in many cases, build wealth and exit poverty.

Peters, a REALTOR® with RE/MAX since 1994, along with his wife and daughter, felt they were obligated to make a difference in the impoverished country and decided to purchase a home in Rwanda to house a few of the country’s 600,000 orphans.

It was a small step towards the bright future for the families in Rwanda and Peters felt that it was something they would try to do on a yearly basis.

Peters had been friends with Pastor Brian Thomson, who heads the Home of Hope Rwanda project, since the mid 1980s.

“I really had no intention of going there, but Brian, the leader of Home of Hope kept saying, ‘Dan, you have to come to Rwanda,’ and I kept telling him, ‘Brian I want to go to Maui,’” joked Peters. “It turned out to be the most amazing thing I’ve ever done. It was life changing; incredible.”

Peters and his wife left Calgary for the small African country last November for three weeks in Rwanda.

The Home of Hope project also helps sponsor widows, many of whom are responsible for the care of up to 22 orphaned children.

Many of the orphans are a direct result of the malicious genocide that terrorized the eastern African country in the mid 1990s.

It has been estimated that nearly one million were killed in 100 days.

“The country has had a history of turmoil but there is such a determination there to succeed, there’s places in the world with poverty and despair and there are places in the world with poverty and extreme hope. In Rwanda there is a great expectation that they are going to make it. And I believe that they will,” said Peters.

It’s the same pride and determination of the people that captivated Peters last November. Since then, he has vowed to go back. He is currently planning to return this winter.

“Ultimately it’s the people. I have to go back, I can’t imagine my life without being able to go back. The people are just amazing. They have nothing and they are the most joy filled people I had ever seen,” he said.

Even with the inspiring hope of the Rwandans, the need is dire.

Rwanda has the largest population of children raising children in the world.

Over 101,000 children are the heads of the home of Rwandan family households.

The number one way that these children raise money to take care of the others is through prostitution.

Peters recalls a particular household whose mother was in the final stages of AIDS.

The 15-year-old daughter was making preparations to become the head of the household.

If she hadn’t been sponsored she would have likely been forced to turn to prostitution to support her family, he said.

The sponsorship program is straightforward, through Home of Hope a $40 monthly donation can be made of which $36 goes to the children.

Only 10 percent of donations are used for administration and 90 percent goes directly to help orphans and children with desperate needs, or other intended projects that donors would like to give to.

Peters’ daughter, also a REALTOR®, is heading to Rwanda this summer with a team to builders to build some more units for orphan families.

—Dan Leahul is the Calgary Real Estate News resident reporter.