To find my statement of purpose, I need to really look at the purpose of my whole writing assignment. The audience and context are a huge part of it. To address an audience I really need to find something that would be entertaining to read about. Something that would keep them hooked on what I am trying to say. I wanted to connect with everyone that is reading this. Whether it be my fellow classmates, teachers, or the whole cyberspace. I wanted to address the problems in Rwanda and the effects it has on the children there. The country of Rwanda has one of the highest percentages of orphanages in the world. One of the top orphanages in Rwanda is the Imbabazi Orphanage. It has provided a place of refuge for troubled and traumatized Rwandan children. The country of Rwanda is settled in the east-central part of Africa.
Most countries of Africa suffer from poverty, civil war, and lack of health care. Especially in Rwanda, where most of the children end up in orphanages across the country. For the simple fact that, people can not take care of their children, let alone bring food home for themselves. So they look for help. The only help in Rwanda, is an orphanage for their children to have food and support with a roof over their heads. What started this horrible problem of poverty and the constant need of food, started in 1994. With the Rwanda Genocide, hundreds of thousands of people were murdered. It was thought to have started from the killing of Juvenal Habyarimana, the President of the Republic from 1973-1994. Which you would think would start a country wide grief. Instead, it started a country wide killing spree. Most of them being from the ethnic group that Habyarimana supported, called Hutus. While it may seem unbelievable to most Americans, it's common for most African countries. For most African countries, the problems of poverty, orphanages, and war, are an everyday occurrence. The children learn this at an early age, some even know about the dangers of these at the time they are born. Some children don't know their parents, or there are those that did know their parents, but got put into an orphanage at an early age.
Children in America may define family in various ways, but they all run along the same lines, a mom, dad, and siblings. Sometimes along with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. Children in the undeveloped countries of the world have a different perspective of family. They might describe it as, mom and dad, with siblings. Or it could be, lots of siblings and guardians in an orphanage. While we all have different opinions on family, one thing might stand out more than the others, love. Whether it be from family, friends, or loved ones thats the one thing that a family has. So to my knowledge, as long as a child feels love, and knows happiness, they know the meaning of family. You can't help who you are born to, or what you're born into, you have to grow up and learn to change it. I've known many people who have been born with nothing, and grow to become successful people in today's world. Many famous people around the world have grown from nothing, Abraham Lincoln for example, who is one of the country's greatest President's. My point of this is, although these children have been born into poverty and have grown up in orphanages, does not mean that, that is their destiny. I believe anything is possible. These children can grow up to be successful people in their country as well. They might not be able to turn their country around, and get them out of poverty, but they have the opportunity to grow and thrive. They might not have gotten that if they were to have stayed with their parents in a hut or on the streets. The children who stayed with their parents could have died from starvation, disease, or lack of care. So although these children are living in orphanages, they sometimes have a better chance of being successful, than those who lived their life on the streets.
