Community Involvement

Lifetime Heating, Cooling & Electric strives to help others locally and as far away as Rwanda to experience a better life. Every client who invests in new equipment with Lifetime Heating, Cooling & Electric receives a custom, handmade basket from a woman in Rwanda.

Local women in Kigali, Rwanda, handwove these baskets using straw and grass that are hand dyed and treated. The women sell these works of art in local villages to provide for their families. Previously these women were working in prostitution but received training and support by a local outreach program, known as Hagari Ministries.

Hagari Rwanda is a ministry to women in prostitution and their children. Through the love of Christ, at Hagari they seek to restore the lives of women who have worked in prostitution and to discontinue the cycle within the family. In Rwanda, most of these women are not able to afford the cost of school for their children; therefore the children often find themselves following in the footsteps of their mothers. In order to break the cycle of poverty and prostitution, Hagari offers a sponsorship program called The Freedom Fund.

Much of what Hagari does falls under the sponsorship program, The Freedom Fund. Hagari relies on the local government to identify women who are or have been in prostitution, and whose children are in desperate need of sponsorship.

When a child is taken into the sponsorship program, he or she is enrolled at a local Christian school called Arise and Shine. If this is not ideal, or they have already finished primary school, they find another school to attend until they finish. The child is given all materials needed for school and school uniforms, all children in the household and one caregiver are given health insurance, and lunch is provided on school days.

Primary school-aged children are tutored at least twice a week, and they have a weekly bible study for the children who are sponsored. A vital part of Hagari's ministry to the women and the children are home visits. Each family is visited regularly so they may connect on a deeper level with the family. In addition, they hold a Bible study every other week, which is open to anyone.

An area that these families live in is Busanza, which is still rather undeveloped and sanitation is very poor. Often, more than five families use one outhouse, usually in terrible condition. Over the last two and a half years, Hagari has worked with the community to build fifteen toilets. Since most women have little to no education, it is very difficult for them to find any job. Therefore, Hagari also develops income-generating projects and job creation for the women who desire to leave prostitution.