Healing, Reconciliation and Intercultural Studies
Our passion is to see Rwanda become a model of lasting peace, unity and light to the nations to the glory of God.
Rwanda, 24 years after the genocide against the Tutsi
More than 60 percent of youth born after the genocide are bewildered, unable to connect what they heard happened and in most cases are affected by secondary trauma or guilt by association need answers about who are we? Where do we come from? How could such a horrible thing happen? What do I do now?
With appreciation to the great effort by different stakeholders for their effort, some victims still need help towards substantial healing, or material assistance for the most destitute.
Released prisoners need more systems to help with reintegration, as most hit a wall and end in drugs and domestic violence. They need to be encouraged to reconcile with victims and find their place in the community. Those who have means should be encouraged to provide restitution, or show at least good will.
The church is still developing the right format and message to set the nation on the path of lasting healing and irreversible peace. The region is also at the greatest need for the healing, reconciliation and stronger integration for mutual blessing and common prosperity.
Programs
Rabagirana Institute for Reconciliation
Powerful healing and reconciliation workshops, leading participants through carefully structured material, have helped many people to face and express their pain, and to move into a restore hope and reconciliation with their neighbour.
Learn MoreOngoing projects
Enable Rabagirana to become a resource center for reconciliation and intercultural studies (CRIS) through offering finances or skilled labor.
Rabagirana has been gathering resources that can help practitioners, students, and visitors who are interested in reconciliation. These resources include DVDs of different approaches used by different organizations, booklets, a full database with organizations involved in reconciliation, books, testimonies that can be visualized, symbols of peace and reconciliation, and items with peace and reconciliation messages.…
Beautiful stories
Healing and Reconciliation
The journey had been long, but the opportunity finally presented itself. Eliya, a genocide perpetrator, was finally being welcomed back to the community. Families and community members all gathered together to witness this rare occasion, 24years after the genocide. But where did it all start? Ten years ago, Eliya got an invitation to attend a Healing and Reconciliation workshop. It is here that he met Gaston, a man who had miraculously survived a gruesome beating (they used a club full of nails, and damped his body in a ditch) by a perpetrator, a man who had lost over 70members of his extended family to the genocide, and a man who recognized Eliya as the culprit who killed 9members of his wife’s family, in that same period. It was here that Eliya saw Gaston, and it broke his heart. All he could do was fall on his knees, and earnestly ask for forgiveness. Through the Lord’s conviction, Gaston embraced him and forgave him. Gaston later on played the significant role of mediating the reconciliation of Eliya, first with his wife, and later on with his wife’s sister, Denise. Prior to their reconciliation and forgiveness, the thought and sight of Eliya disgusted Denise. She hated him for what he had done to her family. The hate was so extreme to the extent that she didn’t want to fellowship with Eliya in the same church! However, all that is in the past now. Recently a ceremony was organized to welcome Eliya back to the community. A ‘cow of forgiveness’ was awarded to Denise’s mother, to mark a fresh start between the two families.
Our Partners
