Growing our work in Rwanda!

November 14, 2009 12:03 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Muraho from Rwanda! My name is Rachel Weber, a recent addition to the Living Bricks team. I will be working as the Communications Coordinator from Rwanda through June 2010. I have the unique opportunity to track stories of radical reconciliation, repentance, and forgiveness throughout Rwanda and share them with our faithful supporters in the U.S. I will also be offering organizational support and communications assistance to the As We Forgive: Rwanda Initiative, which uses the film As We Forgive as an educational tool to create public dialogue about the process of reconciliation, repentance, and forgiveness throughout Rwanda.

Within my first week in Rwanda, I ventured out to the Mayange sector in the Bugesera district to visit the inhabitants of the freshly constructed Living Bricks homes and those waiting to receive homes. Weaving the roads on a bus jammed with people beyond its seating capacity, I was struck with the beauty of the countryside. It seemed impossible that 15 years ago this country, which seems so peaceful on the exterior, was ravaged by one of the most brutal mass killing atrocities the world has seen.

When I arrived, the secretary of the Mayange Sector, Francis, picked me up and promptly drove me to a dusty road where I met five individuals waiting for their own Living Bricks home to be built. Most of the individuals I spoke to lived as refugees growing up and returned to Rwanda after the genocide to seek peace and prosperity, only to join the large population of displaced. The needs of these individuals are extraordinary. While peace is currently mainatined throughout Rwanda, the long-term impact from the genocide has a direct correlation with the amount of poverty in this country, especially the lack of home ownership. The five people I met in Mayange were only a small sample of people from this sector in dire need of housing.

Still, I managed to find hope amidst the plight of the people of Mayange. The name of our project, "Living Bricks," was literally brought to life when I was able to meet the recent recipients of Living Bricks homes, Veronica and Gemima. Owning a home provides a stable foundation that allows the inhabitants to pursue more opportunities to develop their livelihood. There is hope in homes, and even more so in homes that are built with the hands and hearts of those seeking to build a unified country.

- Rachel Weber, Living Bricks Communications Coordinator