Rwanda: what it's all about. A message from N4A's new CEO.

As Rwanda mourns the million people who were murdered in the 1994 genocide, I reflect on my recent visit there.

Rwanda, where at least half a million children were orphaned.

Rwanda, where the international community stood by as one by one, a tenth of the population was systematically hacked to death, often brutally raped or tortured first.

Rwanda, a country so beautiful it literally takes your breath away – avenues of eucalyptus trees, mountains whose pinnacles are shrouded in mist, banana plantations, hills chiselled by terracing, rice fields in the valleys, children running by the side of the road, goats, pigs, chickens, intense green.

As the new team member at Network for Africa, I was there to meet our project partners and see the good work that they are doing.  And as CEO, I am always thinking about how we raise the money to fund the good work that is happening on the ground.  Part of that process is being able to paint a picture of the difference we are making to people’s lives.

It’s about the 120 orphans of the genocide who had no education, grew up in child headed households in extreme poverty, but who are now learning English, IT and music at our Rwanda Multi Learning Centre. They are in with a fighting chance of going on to college and forging a career for themselves, because of what we’re doing. 

It’s about the brave young women who formed their cooperative Wanda Bakery Restoring Lives, and work so hard baking and selling cakes to the expatriate and diplomatic communities in Kigali.

It’s about the determined young men and women who have formed their Heart of Africa choir, because they love music and because it helps them recover from their trauma.  Heart of Africa, whose sound made my spine tingle.

It’s about the 350 women – orphans, widows, child mothers – who were destitute, but were gathered up by one of life’s visionaries, Peace Ruzage, and are now are learning to read and write, have a vocational and a marketable skill, know about their rights, and can now feed their children.

It’s about the 17,000 people who until two months ago, had to walk all day to see a doctor but now have the Ntarama Health Clinic and Hospital on their doorstep.

It’s about understanding the long-term psychological problems, left in the wake of genocide.  It’s about seeing how our work brings a transformation to the lives of our beneficiaries and their extended families.

And being able to listen when people like Rose say:

Three years ago I couldn’t speak.  It was hard to believe that I would ever smile again.  The [Music Centre] choir is like my dream.  I’m very, very happy.

           

I get it.  I can paint the picture now. 

~Annabel Harris

Network for Africa