WINNIPEG — Most people grieve when they see news reports of the violence, disease and death torturing the citizens of Rwanda.
The Bunkowskys had a party.
The barbecue and concert organized by the southern Manitoba farm family raised $11,550 for the Rwandan relief effort through the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
Heather Bunkowsky said she decided to do something one Sunday after hearing an appeal from the Lutheran Church to help the people of the war-torn African country.
“I was just sitting there thinking there’s something we can do, … what can we do? Well, we can sing,” said Bunkowsky, whose husband Robert and six children are famous locally for their musical performances.
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“It just ballooned from there.”
Bunkowsky enlisted the help of her daughter, Lisa, a kindergarten teacher now living in Winnipeg. She jumped at the chance to do something, however small, to ease an overwhelming tragedy. “I just felt so sick and so helpless,” Lisa said.
Within 10 days, they organized the concert, had a “hamburger-making bee”, and contacted everyone they knew. Their biggest fear was that no one would come.
“We were really nervous,” Lisa said. “We decided to take a risk, be optimistic and make 400 burgers. We sold them all.”
The event, featuring three performances by local talent, drew more than 500 people. They were given an envelope and asked to donate whatever they could spare to the effort.
Because donations to the bank are matched four to one by the federal government through the Canadian International Development Agency, the total impact of their donations mushrooms to nearly $60,000.
Melody Goetz, communications co-ordinator for the Foodgrains Bank, said the concern over Rwanda has prompted the agency to establish a special fund that has received $36,000 in contributions to date.
While the media has focused attention on Rwanda, officials are urging people not to forget hunger elsewhere in the world.
Executive director Al Doerksen said a recent shipment of 1,000 tonnes of beans to Rwanda got far more attention than a shipment 25 times that amount the agency recently sent to Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
“The strength of the Foodgrains Bank is in the farmers who donate grain six months before they know where it’s going,” Doerksen said.
“Their quiet, ongoing commitment allows us to be prepared to respond, and allows us to respond also to those people whose hunger never hits the headlines.”
The bank received 15,657 tonnes of grain from 1,700 prairie farmers last year.
