Healing the divides
28 years after the genocide, Rwanda has made huge strides in economic and human development, including reconciliation and healing. Despite this, many Rwandans are still experiencing the effects of the trauma, both in public life and in their own families.
To address this, Food for the Hungry Rwanda designed a Bible-based training course for church leaders in Kamonyi District. The aim was to enable them to play a key role in sustainable reconciliation. It began with conducting a situation analysis with 29 leaders, both men and women, who held positions in various denominations. This was to understand the local context, the extent of healing needs and opportunities for the leaders and their churches to provide a response.
Biblical reflection for reconciliation
The training sessions included interactive presentations, group discussions and sharing of personal experiences. They explored the historic, spiritual, socio-political and economic roots of the genocide, and the features which were unique to Rwanda. They used a Bible-based framework to reflect on four key relationships: with self, others, God and the environment. All of these relationships are broken because of humanity's sin and need to be restored. As a practical demonstration of how Jesus restores our relationships, participants came and symbolically nailed historic pain and wounds to a cross. These leaders were encouraged to look at the ongoing consequences for their congregations and wider communities, and to work out how to engage the whole church in reconciliation ministry.
“Reconciliation is within the mission of the church”
Many seminar attendees were struck by the Gospel-light that was shed on this hard topic at the training. Some of the leaders who took part shared the following:
- “In my church we have never allowed reconciliation related ministry to operate, yet we have many people whom the genocide has affected. All this was the result of considering reconciliation as politics. We missed our role as church leaders as stipulated by the Bible. But the issue at stake is that we, the ministers, must heal and change before we heal others.”
- “There is evidence that shows that communities, even within the church, are still ethnic-related stereotypes.”
- “Before this engagement, we viewed reconciliation as politics, which made us indifferent to post-genocide issues, and consequently we have been idle in the process of reconciliation. But after this exposure, we commit ourselves to make our contribution.”
- “For a long time, we have considered reconciliation as the responsibility of government only. We did not consider our role, but after this meeting, I am awakened: the church has to intervene. Reconciliation is within the mission of the church, yet we were ignorant of it.”
At the end of the seminar, each participant committed to a series of actions to:
- Integrate reconciliation activities into their church programme
- Target those most affected by the genocide, supporting them with safe spaces for therapeutic sessions and dialogue
- Bring together survivors and perpetrators in a process of healing and reconciliation, nurturing their willingness to both forgive and seek forgiveness
- Reach out to their wider community with the message of reconciliation through their preaching of the Gospel
- Teach biblical approaches to healing and reconciliation
- Provide social support for the most vulnerable people
Follow-up sessions have been planned to help these leaders, where necessary, to come to terms with their own experiences.
Who is Food for the Hungry UK?
Food for the Hungry UK exist to end all forms of human poverty worldwide. They are part of the global Food for the Hungry Association, founded in 1971, which operates in some of the world's poorest countries in Latin America, East Africa, and South Asia.
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