Kelowna military veteran says fate reunited him with Rwandan orphan

KELOWNA – Canadian military veteran Warren Webber served as a United Nations’ Peacekeeper during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Not long into the Kelowna man’s time in the war-torn country, a photo was taken of him and some children at a local orphanage.

“Looking at the picture of the kids, knowing some of them had their fingers chopped off and hands burned in fire and just some horrible traumas, yet if you look at the picture, you see smiles,” says Webber.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Looking at the picture of the kids, knowing some of them had their fingers chopped off and hands burned in fire and just some horrible traumas, yet if you look at the picture, you see smiles," says Webber.

Webber returned to the Okanagan in 2001 with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but with the help of Kelowna psychologist Gary Lea, Warren’s PTSD is no longer severe.

“He has worked very hard to address his post traumatic stress and he’s doing a lot better,” says Lea.

In 2011, Warren decided to research the Rwandan orphanage where that picture was taken.

“I had a chance internet search in which I just put the orphanage’s name in and I came up with a site in New York. What their charity was doing is helping to pay for education,” says Webber.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I had a chance internet search in which I just put the orphanage's name in and I came up with a site in New York. What their charity was doing is helping to pay for education," says Webber.

Under one of the bios on the website, Webber found a man named Sunday Justin, who had lived in the orphanage in the southern Rwandan community of Gitarama. After about two years of e-mailing back and forth with the 32-year-old Rwandan man, Webber decided to send him the 1994 photo of himself with the children at the orphanage.

“When he sent the picture back to me, he couldn’t believe it because he was actually in the picture and he was the child that was second to my left,” says Webber.

Coincidence or fate, both men say the reunion has changed their lives.

“I was so surprised when I got to see the photo of myself when I was 12-years-old in the orphanage,” says Justin, speaking via Skype. “I was hopeless at that time; I didn’t know what my future would be.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I was so surprised when I got to see the photo of myself when I was 12-years-old in the orphanage," says Justin, speaking via Skype. "I was hopeless at that time; I didn't know what my future would be."

The two men worked together through e-mail and Skype to establish the Iteme Foundation to empower deprived and vulnerable youth in Rwanda.

“My father died, my family died, so why would I do this? I started [the foundation] to help women in Rwanda, who are suffering,” says Justin.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "My father died, my family died, so why would I do this? I started [the foundation] to help women in Rwanda, who are suffering," says Justin.

Now Webber is looking to register the charity in Canada and one day make a return to what is a very different Rwanda than the one he saw in 1994.

Click here to view the Go Fund Me page for the Iteme Foundation.