by James Allan, UMKC Sports Information Director

During the holiday break most college students relax, catch up on the Zzzz's, and recharge for the upcoming spring  semester.  For Zachary Alholm, a redshirt junior on the UMKC men's tennis team, his break was a little more intense, and fulfilling, as he spent 12 days on a mission in the country of Rwanda. 

"This trip was about the bringing of Christ to the nations," said Alholm.  "It was fulfilling to serve these people that don't get to go to school, get water from a faucet, have parents show them any affection and so many other things that we take for granted."

Alholm, along with four other college students and a group leader, stayed in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and then ventured out into two rural cities with C3 Missions through the Cottage Care Widow and Orphan Relief Fund (CWORF).  At the missions, Alholm worked at several churches and helped lead vacation bible studies (VBS) for the children.

"You can't help but fall in love with the children," said Alholm.  "We brought a football to the country and the children didn't know what to do with it.  They were throwing it two-handed over their heads.  But once we brought out the soccer ball, they all went crazy."

At one of the VBS events, Alholm and his group were teaching the kids about Noah's Arc.  "I was picked to serve as the Kangaroo for obvious reasons," said Alholm.  "The kids thought it was great when I was hopping around and they loved my 'Roos hat."

The C3 Mission's goal is to help Rwanda gain a level of self-sustainability.  The organization assists the Rwandan people in building widow houses, teaches them how to grow produce and live for themselves.

"There are many simple things such as personal hygiene, growing crops and taking care of livestock that the kids and some widows just don't know how to do," explained Alholm.  "In the Rwanda Genocide most of the men in the country were killed, leaving women and children on their own.  This organization helps to give the tools to these people to allow them to make it on their own.  They assist them by raising funds to build the children's homes around the schools and hospitals in the village."

One of the most impactful parts of Alholm's trip was his visit to the Rwandan Genocide Memorial.  The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass killings of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's Tutsis and Hutu political moderates by the Hutu dominated government.  Over the course of 100 days at least 500,000 people were killed and the estimates of the death toll have ranged between 500,000 to 1 million or as much as 20 percent of the total population of the country.

"One of the lasting images in my head was visiting the Rwanda Genocide Memorial," said Alholm.  "Seeing first hand some of the things these people have gone through and seeing the machete scars across women's heads was very impactful in my life."

Upon returning to Kansas City, Alholm said it was difficult to get back into the school routine.  "After being in Rwanda, it is kind of hard to get motivated into going back to classes," admitted Alholm.  "I saw how important and key a lot of things dealing with my engineering major could be for their country like solar power panels and general power supply, so I really want to go back there and help them out."

In an ideal world, Alholm would love to get an internship at an engineering firm in Rwanda this summer (he actually met an engineer in the country during his time there), which would also allow him to return to some of the villages he visited.  Until then, he's hoping to gather support to try and raise funds to benefit the Rwandan people. 

"I've talked to Coach (Kendell) Hale, and I think it would be neat if our tennis team or Athletics Department would work together to raise money to build an orphan's house," said Alholm.  "It would be very fulfilling to be able to do something like this for these people... it could be called 'Roos for Rwanda."

For more information on the initiative please visit theglobalorphanproject.org.