Hope Made Real: The Story of Mama Arlene and the Children of Urukundo

Arlene Brown began her life in Africa in 1996, at the age of 65, as a relief worker in refugee camps following the Rwandan Genocide. In 2004 she made a permanent move to Rwanda to work with non-profits for children. In 2006 she began her work creating a home for vulnerable children in Muhanga District. In 2010 she established Urukundo Learning Center a school for children of low and no income families in Cyeza Sector, Muhanga District. Arlene was raised in a rural anthracite region of Pennsylvania in the USA during the Great Depression, the first of seven children. In her married years she worked in nursing and industry. Arlene raised five and is a grandmother to seventeen, and great-grandmother to twenty seven. She believes that her present work in Rwanda is her final legacy. Dr. Patricia D. Brown is an ordained minister with the United Methodist Church and Executive Director of Spiritworks Center for Formation and Leadership. In her over forty years in ministry, she has served as a pastor of numerous congregations, on judicatory staffs, as a hospital chaplain, and as a university associate professor. She currently works as a hospice Bereavement Manager. The author of nine published books, Brown is a popular speaker, workshop leader and retreat facilitator.