Genocide survivor has learned to take one step at a time

He lost four siblings in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and barely survived the consequences of his own outspokenness in his homeland.

But Providence Rubingisa hasn't lost his faith in humanity or his desire to help those in need.

"I believe in children," says the 44-year-old, who now lives in Warrenville. "If we can teach them how to love others, how to love each other, I think things will change."

He's trying to help children and families in Africa with his new organization, simply called Stuff for the Poor.

Children and families in the West and Northwest suburbs are proving his greatest allies.

Local schoolchildren have collected about 7,000 pairs of used shoes that are being shipped to Rwanda this month. There, they will be sold at low cost to middle-class people to raise money for a community development project in a poor village in Tanzania called Mbwewe.

Ninety-eight percent of people in Africa wear used clothing and shoes, Rubingisa said. Getting enough to them is the challenge.

Giving spirit

The single biggest contribution -- 1,111 pairs of shoes -- came from Beth Strege, a teacher at Hoffman Estates' Lakeview School who organized a shoe drive in Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54.

She'd learned about the effort from her daughter, Faith, who'd taught in Africa herself and had seen fliers posted at the Schaumburg Township District Library.

They'd been posted by Marie Burger, a retired teacher from Hoover School in Schaumburg.

Burger said the project shows how differently material goods like shoes are regarded in the United States and Africa. One school simply donated the unclaimed shoes from its lost-and-found.

"Our lives are so busy that we just think we'll buy another pair (rather) than look for the one we lost," she said.

Burger met Rubingisa through the Wheaton humanitarian group World Relief and became a volunteer for his Stuff for the Poor.

Schools in Glen Ellyn have also contributed to the cause. Rubingisa recently spoke with students at Lincoln School and the Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41 superintendent about securing further help in the future.

The money the shoes will raise is aimed to provide basic needs like water purification in the Tanzanian village.

But the work won't end with just one village or even one nation. Tanzania -- where Rubingisa's wife, two biological children and six adopted children are still waiting to join him -- is just a good place to start.

"Tanzania is a beautiful, stable country," he said.

His family lives in the capital Dar es Salaam, about 150 miles from Mbwewe.

But Rubingisa sees his work continuing in countries like Zambia, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya and the Congos.

He dreams of having a big warehouse in the Chicago area to store the donations, and of taking local families on annual mission trips to meet the people they're helping.

Until then, he reports to a container yard near the DuPage Airport each morning to sort the latest donations.

For himself, his dreams are humbler: to reunite with his wife, Nasra, and their children, possibly in January.

He hopes to bring them to Illinois after five years in Tanzania. His own children are now 6 and 10, while the six adopted after losing their parents in the genocide range from 15 to 21.

They speak by phone twice a month, but the only time he's seen them since he fled Rwanda was last December, after a four-year separation.

"I believe the more family you have," he said, "the more powerful you are."

Leaving Rwanda

Rubingisa had an architecture degree from Morocco and was running a successful construction company in his native Rwanda specializing in water well projects before being forced to flee and seek asylum in the United States in 2002.

He'd previously survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. The massacre was set off when the plane carrying Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down.

But personal danger returned for Rubingisa in 2002.

"I started to speak out because there was killing going on," he said. "I got in trouble, but I was able to escape."

Rubingisa said he knew the time had come to leave or suffer great physical harm for his speaking out.

He drove to Uganda and from there flew to Detroit. He'd had a U.S. visa for 10 years that he'd never used. His departure was so hasty that he had to leave behind his wife and family.

His wife was beaten the day after he disappeared.

Through a group at his Christian church, he was able to arrange for his wife to go to Congo and then to Tanzania. Members of the church looked after their children until they were able to join Nasra.

Now Rubingisa hopes he's nearing the end of the long waiting period for his immediate family to join him.

Granted political asylum in the United States, he lived for a short time in Detroit before making his way to Southwest suburban Romeoville, where a number of Rwandans lived.

There he established Global Family Rescue, which organized the sponsorship of 350 Rwandan families by 350 American families.

He also began his association with World Relief while working as a cabdriver to make ends meet.

Rubingisa believes his cab-driving job was God's way of putting him where he needed to be. It was through that job that he came to meet a business professor named Gary Roberts who specializes in non-profit organizations.

Roberts teaches at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., and was attending a "Christians in Political Science" conference at Wheaton College last June.

Roberts started chatting Rubingisa on his way to the airport. Roberts remembers that encounter as the highlight of his entire trip.

"I know how God works," Roberts said. "He brings people together. It seems random, but it really isn't."

He credits Rubingisa for the passion and vision to make Stuff for the Poor possible.

"He gave me the big-picture view," Roberts said. "My role was in being an encourager as well as to provide some technical assistance. It was obvious that he was a man on a mission. And he's got the credibility because he's been through the Rwandan genocide."

Early inspiration

The original idea was that Stuff for the Poor would sell toys in Africa. Then it was bicycles. Then Rubingisa settled on shoes, his World Relief colleague Burger said.

When Rubingisa grew up in Rwanda, his father was just able to provide his family with the barest essentials.

"But he was not able to buy me toys, and I never had a bicycle," Rubingisa said. "And it's not because he didn't love me, but because he couldn't afford those things. That was the big reason I started this."

Another early example of Rubingisa's compassionate nature was at the age of 8. While out walking, he met a boy suffering from leprosy who was sitting alone along the road.

Rubingisa brought this boy back to his family's house. Though his father was initially put out by this, he ended up caring for the boy like one of his own sons after getting him treated.

Though this adopted brother became another victim of the 1994 genocide, Rubingisa's memories of his own actions give him hope that compassion is a natural trait of all children.

How to help

• Those interested in contributing to Stuff for the Poor or learning more about Global Family Rescue can contact Rubingisa at (630) 901-5986 or prubingisa@yahoo.com.