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Cynthia Hess

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Rwanda: One Country, One Surprise After Another

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Rwanda: One Country, One Surprise after another

The 1994 Rwandan Genocide left a devastated country, and a legacy that looked as if it would last for generations, as most violence that is directed at the harm of another person does. Prison was the last place Pastor Deo Gashagaza wanted to visit. The perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against Tutsi’s were there, including the parties responsible for killing all 45 members of his Tutsi family, and they still wanted to kill him…

A long journey later, he worked with single focus and God’s help to set up reconciliation villages. Rwanda has eight such villages and is an international model for reconciliation and restorative justice. In the villages, Rwandans, both adults and their children, once torn apart by genocide are now living and working together in peace. 

When a country is devastated by its own internal strife, and makes subsequent choices to disrupt the cycle of intergenerational retaliation, it is a privilege to witness the results.  The courage to forge out solutions that are so unusual that they are shocking – such as the establishment of Reconciliation Villages, where perpetrators and victims live side by side – deserves our attention.  When you visit them in person, you realize that, against all instinct, this is a successful working model of the peace the world craves.

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One of the perpetrators who lives in the Village at Mbyo, Frederic Kazigwemo, was convicted of killing seven people.  He lives in a house next to Innocent Nyandwi, a survivor whose parents and relatives were killed in the Genocide.  Kazigwemo, who is now the leader of the village, said that they have attained reconciliation devoid of any grudges since 2006 when they started living there.  According to Kazigwemo, the reconciliation village community is striving for economic development as a way of ensuring what happened does not happen again.  “We have formed the farming cooperative and women have a basket (agaseke) weaving cooperative. …We want to be economically empowered,” he said.

The villagers have very little available work, and they use their natural resources to create cottage industries, hand making valuable items they hope to sell. They are not looking for a handout, just a helping hand.

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KDEE Radio Station Visit

Earlier this year, African Education Support Foundation’s (AESF) CEO, Cynthia Hess and its Senior Recruiter, Gwen Chamberlain had the wonderful opportunity to have a live, sit-down conversation with Sacramento KDEE’s Radio Station Community Relations Director, Leon Guidry. This open-forum conversation gave us the space and time to highlight the fascinating benefits to seniors who choose to become a volunteer, and we were seeking virtual volunteer tutors for 3rd-grade students here in Northern California through AmeriCorps.

Mr. Guidry posed very relevant questions as we continued to discuss the necessity of helping to close this “academic learning gap” caused, in part, by the current devastating  pandemic! Our organization has a proven history of improving educational outcomes for students and has partnered with AmeriCorps Seniors to create solutions to help mitigate this critical need in our schools.

The flow of our conversation was enjoyable and unique as we each came to the same consensus that the need for senior, virtual volunteers during these critical times has the potential to significantly impact the future for all of us! We are grateful to have had our voices heard by the many listeners who tuned in and those who responded. We are also grateful for the beautiful spirit of Leon Guidry for providing the air space and genuine interest in our organization!

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Alyssa Curran

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My daughter, Alyssa, made the trip to Rwanda with our family in early 2019 when she was 10 years old. For a young girl whose idol is Jane Goodall, her time in Africa (in particular going on safari in Akagera National Park) was a dream come true.  Now 13, Alyssa has already obtained a school internship to work with animals, and is interested in one day becoming a zoo veterinarian or wildlife conservationist.

 

She recalls her time overseas with AESF as her “favorite trip ever” and, as her parent, I cannot say enough about the importance of the cultural lessons she received in Rwanda. Cynthia Hess introduced her to the facts of the Rwandan genocide in an age-appropriate way, and she was deeply moved by the stories of reconciliation and forgiveness she heard and the incredible Rwandan children she met. It was just a wonderful family experience that none of us will ever forget. -Heather Curran

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Erica Kreider

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In 2016, Erica Kreider graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a Master’s degree in Special Education (SPED) with a specialty in Adapted Education and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Excited to begin her career, and before she became part of a tenured system, she decided to go on a quick mission trip to Rwanda. What she saw there changed her life. Rwanda is a beautifully clean country with an intact yet underdeveloped infrastructure. The school she visited on the trip, Sonrise School, has a nursery composed of 80 students divided over three classrooms, each with only one teacher. There is no plan for differentiation, identifying, or instructing Special Education students, other than to “love them extra”. She fell in love with the students’ curiosity and the staff’s dedication to their success. 

 

She stayed! 

She worked (voluntarily) at Sonrise for three months establishing specialized instruction for about eight kids, sharing strategies with the other existing teachers, and creating an SAT Prep class for the high school. 

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For Erica, the opportunity to use her knowledge to instruct other teachers, create a higher academic bar for both special education and non-special education students, and to work on all of that in an atmosphere that invites innovation and educational growth has been an exciting start to her career.

HIV + Rwanda

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The sickest of the sick: HIV+ children

Pastor Deo Gashagaza, Founder and Executive Director of the Association for the Assistance of Children, is torn up over the 30-40 HIV+ children in Kigali.

Pastor Deo is a well-respected figure in both national and international circles.  His return from Congo in 1994 launched a personal journey of forgiveness (in response to the murder of his own family) that quickly spread throughout Rwanda.  After working with a team to establish the Reconciliation Villages throughout the country, he turned his attention to the problems of poverty and special circumstance children on the streets of Kigali.

Deo and his wife Christine began caring for street children between his already busy schedule in 2006. Following his groundbreaking work in reconciliation through Prison Fellowship Rwanda, he officially began the process of registering the Association for the Assistance of Children in September 2011.  It is now a fully recognized agency in Rwanda.

These HIV+ children are caught in the crack between policy and practicality.  The Rwandan government provides HIV+ children with appropriate life-saving treatment for their condition.  The policy in Rwanda regarding subsidies for food is skewed towards individuals providing self-support.  These children contracted HIV through non-voluntary means; they take their medication absent of food, The Pastor and his wife have been feeding this population a bowl of beans to accompany their HIV medication for several years, as frequently as God provides ‘bean money’.   

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Rwanda needs our help; not only because of the genocide, but because of the exemplary decisions they have made after the genocide.  When a country is devastated by its own internal strife, and makes subsequent choices to disrupt the cycle of intergenerational retaliation, it is a privilege to witness the results.  The courage to forge out solutions that are so unusual that they are shocking – such as the establishment of reconciliation villages, where perpetrators and victims live side by side – deserves our attention.  When you visit them in person, you realize that, against all instinct, these are a working model of the peace the world craves.

Pastor Deo, now a Bishop, is a genuine home grown leader who is vested in the outcome as a member of the community.  He wasn’t ‘found’ in order to distribute funding as part of a global organization, he was and still is working in the trenches, praying for God to bring him partners who desire to help serve these poorest of the poor children.

These 40 children have no access to food, but access to medicine through a government program that dispenses life-saving medication to these children. They do not die of HIV infections, they starve to death.

Deo and his team provides food to these children at the treatment center where they receive medications. Though there is no funding for this need, Deo and his wife find beans to cook every week.  Their goal is to bring every child into a positive relationship with society, heal the emotional wounds brought on by tragedy, and impart in them a sense of connectedness to others. These children are not excluded. We long for every Rwandan to feel as though they have hope and a future. 

Donations of any size are always welcome to help Deo and his team feed these children.