Posts from April, 2009
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Update from the Founder – April 2009
Today is my first day back in Rwanda in quite a while. The flight from Israel through Addis Abbaba was pretty uneventful. Didn’t even sit next to anyone particularly interesting on the plane. I didn’t see Shimon at the airport in Addis until we were boarding the plane, so I just grabbed a cup of coffee…or two…and tried to do a little work but the internet was painfully slow. It was raining in Kigali when we landed, which is perfect as it is the rainy season, but fortunately on the drive back to the village the sun came up and it was really a beautiful drive. Everything which is always green in this part of the world is SO green and luscious looking now, and the village is just blooming everywhere. They have been trying very hard to get all the grassy areas planted before the end of the rainy season, so the entire soccer field is planted with grass, as is the main courtyard at the school (the smaller courtyards are filled with water due to drainage issue that they are working on but they too will be covered with grass one day). Nir planted (or actually had these really great volunteers plant) coffee trees up at the school – he is determined to plant at least 5000 of them!
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Agahozo-Shalom April 2009 Update
Dear Friends and Supporters,
April 7th 2009 will mark the 15th year since Genocide claimed nearly 1 million lives in Rwanda, in less than three months. In the introduction to his book (We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families), Philip Gourevitch takes note of the decimation: “The Dead of Rwanda accumulated at nearly three times the rate of Jewish dead during the Holocaust. It was the most efficient mass killing since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”. Gourevitch later explains how not one conversation in Rwanda takes place without alluding -directly or not- to the Genocide. And fifteen years later, few conversations take place still, without alluding to the Genocide, the only difference being that today it is sometimes mentioned as a point of reference, a place where Rwandans don’t want to go, ever again. Rebuilding after such devastation and amidst so many challenges is formidable; yet Rwanda seems determined to educate and develop its population so “never again” actually stands a chance.
For those of us who felt helpless in the face of the 1994 atrocities and/or later wondered how the world could have let them happen, it is a privilege to be able to play a role in this recovery process.
In December 2008, we brought you a special report on the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village; the village was then becoming the official home of 125 wonderful Rwandan teenage kids and their ‘parents’ and educators. At the end of the attached report, you will find a summary of the major accomplishments in the last three months, and we also encourage you to read our blog for more telling stories. Much has been done over the last two years, and more still needs to be accomplished before the last intake brings us to full capacity (500 kids). Nevertheless, as I look back 15 years, then gaze into the eyes of these 125 young men and women, and as I reflect on the last three months at the village and consider the unit we’ve become, I can’t help but say “we wish to inform you that tomorrow we will live and thrive with our families”!
On behalf of Agahozo-Shalom, I thank you for the moral and practical support you continue to give us, without which we could not have gotten where we are today. This April where we simultaneously celebrate Agahozo-Shalom’s progress – and remember the pain it was born out of – I feel inclined to end with a personal thought -which I hope will enrich you in some small way: When I was ten years old, and my mother could not put food on the table, I didn’t feel hunger as much as I felt her pain. When I was twenty and unable to process the Genocide or deaths of my loved ones, I didn’t feel their loss as much as I felt the abandonment of the world, and when I was thirty and powerless vis-à-vis Darfur, I didn’t feel discouragement as much as I felt their silent eyes saying “I appreciate your trying, please don’t stop”. In these challenging times, may we all remember what Rwandans say when faced with difficult challenges: “ejo bizaba byiza” -tomorrow things will be good!
Just one last thing: at Agahozo-Shalom we celebrate April 7th as a day of Genocide remembrance -and reverence for universal life. Would you consider joining us this year? You could use the day to get more informed about Genocide and how we can make it history, write a letter to Rwandans or Darfuris expressing regret and/or solidarity, you may consider giving up something for that day, and making a donation to organizations working in Rwanda, Darfur, or other places where Genocide is happening or its effects lingering. Whatever you do, it will mean a lot for those you think about on that day. It helps in healing their wounds (it did for me), and it makes them want to heal the world in turn. And so it goes, until we make it a better place for our humanity to finally thrive.
Thanks again for supporting Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. I hope you enjoy the attached report, and please don’t hesitate to contact our office if you’d like to know more.
Amahoro/Peace
Sifa Nsengimana, Executive Director
Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village[To read more of this article, download the PDF.]