Pastor Ntavuka helping ease the burden of the vulnerable

When he left Rwanda to live in the United Kingdom as a missionary, Osee Ntavuka’s hope to contribute towards a better nation never faded. Ntavuka’s life is traced from when he was a young and aggressive young man until he got saved and changed his lifestyle and then grew up spiritually.

Saturday, August 12, 2017
Pastor Ntavuka talks to mutuelle de sante beneficiaries before they received them. / Jean d'Amour Mbonyinshuti

When he left Rwanda to live in the United Kingdom as a missionary, Osee Ntavuka’s hope to contribute towards a better nation never faded. 

Ntavuka’s life is traced from when he was a young and aggressive young man until he got saved and changed his lifestyle and then grew up spiritually. 

Shortly after the Genocide, as a survivor, he realized he could only find hope from preaching the word of God and he soon founded his own ministry; "All Nations Ministries”. 

In 2000, Ntavuka decided to set up All Nations International Church in Plymouth, UK in a move he attributes to the calling and a desire from God to bring revival to the European country. 

Currently he lives in Plymouth with his family where he is a leader of the church with over 300 members. 

Eager to serve 

A few years after he established himself in the UK, Ntavuka says he realized he still felt he had an obligation to contribute towards his community back in Rwanda. 

He founded the Rwanda Legacy of Hope, an NGO whose mission is to improve the health and living conditions of vulnerable people. 

As a pastor with shepherds whose various backgrounds and the will to help improve lives of Rwandans, Ntavuka decided to mobilize church members to commit and help improve the lives of Rwandans. Since 2012, Ntavuka comes with a team of doctors every year to operate on patients who suffer from various diseases such as hernia, ENT among others.  The programme has seen hundreds of patients operated on.

For instance, just this year in March, over 300 patients had specialized operations. 

"Some of church members are specialised doctors in various areas and are willing to use their spare time to volunteer and serve needy patients, so I mobilize and all of them cover the travel costs by themselves,” he said.  

They also pay medical insurance (Mutuelle de sante) for at least 200 vulnerable people whenever they come each year.

"As a Rwandan, I think it is not a big issue, I am Rwandan and love my country, I wanted to contribute and build my country with other Rwandans, Even if I have duo nationality and live in UK, Rwanda is my first country,” he said. 

Ntavuka also said that to get medical equipment, they mobilize funds from various countries and get them and after their tour, they leave the equipment with the hospitals. 

Ntavuka, 62 and a father of 4 on Monday delivered 120 community health insurance premiums to residents in Nyabugogo cell, Kigali sector, Nyarugenge district. 

"Today we are here to deliver Mutuelle de santé cards to over 120 individuals, every year we do this for at least 200.Actually this year we raised 240 in total, and besides these we have handed out today, we had delivered others in Rwamagana District,” he said. 

He added: "We also work with schools to get ICT and sports equipment, we shall keep coming here to support where we can. We are also planning to open a youth livelihood centre where young Rwandans will be trained in music, sports, arts and languages”.

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