Hope Amid Horrors

By Ron Sirak
Photos By Dom Furore November 9, 2007

The road north from Kigali follows a path likely cut by tribesmen 1,000 years ago, clinging to a ridge that climbs toward the volcanic peaks that separate Rwanda from Congo and Uganda. The land drops dramatically into lush valleys framed against far ridges, a vista that led the Hutus and Tutsis to call their ancient home igihugu cy'imisozi igihumbi -- land of 1,000 hills. Just before dawn a still-hidden sun paints the sky with an eerie light that brings muted beauty to the silhouetted hills framing a lowland still lost in a blanket of fog. Out of the faint glow, almost as an apparition, emerge thousands of Rwandans dressed in traditional bright colors or recycled rags walking down the mountain to market with baskets of bananas, bamboo and other goods balanced on their heads. It is not a place you expect to find six women professional golfers.

This hearty half-dozen traveled halfway around the world to learn more about a troubled land where heaven and hell share the same soul, and the chasm between good and evil is remarkably bridged by hope. Rwanda is a contradiction wrapped in a paradox. Equatorial yet temperate in climate because of its elevation, this tiny nation of 8.4 million people tucked away in the Great Lakes region of central Africa is a serene place with a gentle people that spun hellishly out of control for 100 days in 1994 during which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu extremists, often by the blade of a machete and always with the intent that death should be preceded by humiliation and suffering. A nation the size of Maryland with a population of North Carolina lost the equivalent of Detroit in barely more than three months.

HOW TO HELP
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to helping children, families and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty. It provides services regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. To find out more about the organization go to worldvision.org Golf Fore Africa is a members' charity initiative of the LPGA, whose goal is to help the orphans of Mudasomwa, Rwanda. Go to worldvision.org/golfforeafrica to learn more about the project or make a donation. You can also e-mail: golforeafrica@gmail.com or write:
Golf Fore Africa
32531 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 105, Box 101
Scottsdale, AZ 85266-1519

And when the killing stopped, the suffering did not. There are more than 1.3 million orphans in Rwanda, children left without parents because of the genocide, the AIDS pandemic, imprisonment following the killings and abandonment. The children of Rwanda are dying, 30,000 each year from preventable diseases. Malaria is rampant. Of every 1,000 Rwandan children born, 203 don't make it to their fifth birthday, compared to seven in the United States. It is rare to find a mother who has not lost a child. The average Rwandan, who earns about $220 a year, does not live to age 50. There are 27,000 children younger than 14 who are HIV positive, many the result of the more than 500,000 rapes during the genocide or afterward in refugee camps, most committed by Hutu deliberately infecting Tutsi.

In one of the more moving examples of charity to emerge from the generous world of golf, the AIDS orphans of Mudasomwa in southern Rwanda have become the project for a group of LPGA players. Betsy King, the 52-year-old Hall of Famer with six major championships among her 34 victories, was looking for something meaningful to do in 2006, the first year since 1975 that she failed to play an LPGA event, and her Christian faith took her to Africa to learn more about the AIDS crisis. One of the three countries she visited was Rwanda, and once exposed to the uplifting spirit and heartbreaking story of its people, she knew what she needed to do.

"You go to a country and you think you are never going to go back, but when I was here a year ago I was so moved by the heart of the Rwandan people I went home determined to do all I could to help," King explained in Kigali, the capital, in late October as she led her fellow professionals through the urban slums, rural mud-hut villages and economic development programs initiated by the Christian aid-organization World Vision.

What King did was brainstorm with Debbie Quesada, who accompanied her to Rwanda, to form Golf Fore Africa, a member-supported charity of the LPGA that currently has 18 LPGA pros, staff members and teaching pros sponsoring more than three dozen Rwandan children. So far the group has raised $170,000 for projects in Rwanda, with LPGA players voting a $10,000 donation from the tour. "This is our chance to help, and these are people who need our help," King says. "Our dream is to help AIDS orphans, and World Vision does that very well in terms of education and training. We will also look at other charities that are involved in getting medicine to people."

The eclectic group that made the trip spoke volumes about the collective heart of women's golf. Joining King were seven-time LPGA major winner Juli Inkster, 47, and her daughters Hayley, 17, and Cori, 13; Renee Powell, 61, one of only three African-Americans to play the LPGA Tour; Reilley Rankin, 28, an All-American at Georgia before breaking her back in a swimming accident in 1999 and returning two years later to lead the Bulldogs to the 2001 NCAA title; Katherine Hull, a 25-year-old Australian who was the 2003 NCAA Player of the Year at Pepperdine; and Wendy Posillico, 36, one of the best lacrosse players in history at the University of Vermont and now a teaching pro. Also along were Posillico's mother, Whitney, Rankin's aunt Diane Reilley, Quesada, the organizational glue of the group, and Steve Roberts, a retired businessman and fundraiser who was the lone male outside of World Vision staffers and a writer and photographer from Golf World.