Our Programs
in Rwanda
Rwanda Partners is working primarily
in the Bugesera region of Rwanda- a region that was
devastated during the genocide due to the high percentage
of Tutsis who were killed there. Our programs are
targeted to help revitalize and restore this wounded
region and her people. Rwanda Partners also works
in other regions of Rwanda as the need arises.
Healing and
Reconciliation Workshops
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Members
of RP’s Reconciliation Team |
Healing
and Reconciliation in Action |
Through our team of experienced and
dedicated reconciliation ministers, Rwanda Partners
is working to bring healing and reconciled relationships
to the people of the Bugesera region – both
victims and perpetrators. (Each member of this team
is a survivor of the genocide who have personally
experienced healing and reconciliation in their own
lives.) This is done primarily through 3-day relational
workshops that explore the dynamics of hatred and
conflict and the unresolved issues that are blocking
forgiveness and repentance. Perpetrators and victims/survivors
who are open to reconciliation are invited to attend
these workshops in their communities.
Income-Generating
Projects
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Now
Healing and Reconciliation are important for the restoration
of Rwanda – but without poverty reduction, they
won’t bring about lasting change in the lives
of her people. Rwanda Partners provides income-generating
projects to impoverished men and women who have participated
in one of our healing and reconciliation workshops.
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Former
enemies now working together |
Orphans’ Bee-Keeping and Honey Farm Project
This bee and honey farm project in the Gashora sector of the Bugesera Region will benefit 100
orphans who are caring for their younger siblings entirely on their own. These orphans, some
of Rwanda's most vulnerable poor, will earn an income by raising bees for use by local farmers
to help increase their crop yields through pollination as well as by producing honey for sale
in the local market. There are approximately 10,000 orphans and 1,100 orphan-led households
in Bugesera with no sustainable form of income. This bee and honey farm will provide them
with the necessary means to provide for themselves and the younger orphans they care for.
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Orphan-headed household that
will benefit from this Farm Project |
Bee House with Hives |
Urunana Pineapple Plantation
Project in Ruhuha
This pineapple plantation project benefits 70 widows/rape
victims and 30 wives of incarcerated genocide perpetrators
in the Bugesera region who attended RP sponsored-reconciliation
workshops. By working together to maintain and manage
this plantation, these women are not only furthering
the reconciliation they have already achieved, but
they are also providing much-needed food for their
region while improving life for themselves and their
families.
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Urunana
Pineapple Plantation |
Wirira Widows’ Corn
Grinder and Sales Shop Project
The 56 widows of the Wirira Widows Association are
some of the most wounded and traumatized women of
Rwanda. This corn grinder project will enable these
women to not only earn an income that will provide
them and their children with food, clothing and medical
care but will also provide the community with this
much-needed service.
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Goretti
of Wirira tries
out the corn grinder |
A store
RP is renting
for Wirira to sell products in |
Gisenyi Reconciliation
Team Boat Project
In 2005, Rwanda Partners implemented a reconciliation-support
project in the Gisenyi region which included the purchase
of a transport boat to help raise funds to support
reconciliation programs in this region. This boat
provides income to the Gisenyi Reconciliation Ministry
by bringing people from the outlying areas on Lake
Kivu into Gisenyi during the week to bring their goods
and services to market. In addition it will also be
used to transport goods and people from Gisenyi to
other outlying regions. This will provide the Gisenyi
reconciliation team with a sustainable income to promote
reconciliation in their region.
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The
transport boat being built in Gisenyi |
Animals for
Impoverished Families
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Now
Since 2005 Rwanda Partners has provided hundreds of
animals (goats and chickens) to impoverished families
in Rwanda - many of which are child-headed households
or homes run by widows. These animals continue to
make a real difference in the lives of these impoverished
families – providing them with milk, cheese
and eggs; fertilizer for their gardens; and offspring
to sell at market.
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A
goat makes such a difference
to an impoverished family! |
Building Projects
Rwanda Partners’
"New Hope" Reconciliation & Equipping
Center in Nyamata ("Ibyringiro Bishya")
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Now
This Center is a place where the wounded people of
the Bugesera region can come together to receive training
in reconciliation, job skills, the creation of sustainable
income-generating projects, evangelistic outreach
and discipleship training as well to help them develop
into the men, women and children that God has created
them to be. In addition, the Center hopes to offer
literacy training, basic health care education, training
in establishing savings accounts and basic money management
as well as several other helpful life-skills to the
impoverished people of Bugesera.
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| The
New Hope Center of
Nyamata officially opens |
The
community is excited
to see the new Center! |
Center for Champions Street
Kids Center
Rwanda Partners played a pivotal role in facilitating
the vision and implementation of the Center for Champions
– a residential and educational training facility
for street youth in Rwamagana where Rwanda’s
broken and wounded street children are given the support
and encouragement they need to live out their dreams
of a future filled with the hope of life off the streets.
This project was financially supported by First Presbyterian
Church of Bellevue (a US-based church) and is operated
by African Evangelistic Enterprises/Rwanda (a Rwandan
non-government organization). Opened in May 2008,
the Center provides training in a residential setting
for 200 children and will allow hundreds more from
the community to benefit from the life-changing training
that will be offered there.
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A
former street child is happy
to have a home at the Center! |
The
Grand Opening of the Center for Champions in
Rwamagana |
These are just a few of the many
projects that Rwanda Partners is offering to help
alleviate poverty and reconcile Rwanda’s vulnerable
poor.