Peacebuilding efforts in Rwanda earn recognition
World Vision Rwanda received an inaugural peace prize during the International Day of Peace commemorated on 21 September 2009.
World Vision International recognised the Rwanda office for its ability to strategically and effectively integrate peacebuilding into its relief and development work.
At a peace day event held in Nyamata, south of the capital, Kigali, World Vision Rwanda showcased work that proves healing peacebuilding and reconciliation is a community undertaking that can propel production, development and new hope.
Emmanuel Nadayisaba told of how he killed many people, maimed Alice and left her for dead when he used a sharp object to cut off her right hand. “He cut my hand. They cut into pieces my baby who was nine months old,” Alice Mukarulinda confirmed.
The two people stood before a crowd, as friends, to tell the story of how World Vision Rwanda’s healing, peacebuilding and reconciliation programme gave them an opportunity to reconcile and earn new life.
Following the 1994 Rwandan genocide, World Vision Rwanda focused on truth-telling and reconciliation and brought survivors, released prisoners, mediators, teachers and church leaders together.
In order to mobilise and unify communities to build durable peace, World Vision Rwanda developed Promotion of Reconciliation Among Youth (PRAY), a programme aimed at helping traumatised youth experience healing by sharing peace messages through expressions of drama, song, dance, and other artistic channels.
Not only has PRAY influenced communities to embrace the values and implications of peace, but young participants have found restoration in understanding their capacity, role and responsibilities as agents of peace.
“The award does not mean that we have reached our destination. We should not be complacent. This award places a greater challenge on our shoulders, to prove that we mean what we say and that we mean what we do,” said Edward Kalisa, World Vision Rwanda’s acting national director, in his acceptance speech.
The award constituted a trophy and cash worth US$5,000. Kalisa asked the communities where World Vision works to consider the award as theirs as well.
“We are here to honour an organisation that has mobilised children, women and men of different walks of life and across religious denominations to be part of a peace movement,” said Tim Andrews, the chief operating officer for World Vision in Africa, during the award ceremony.
He cited the global peace index, which shows that more than 15 African countries are experiencing some form of conflict, and he advised that this calls for new ways of engaging individuals and communities for development.
“Whilst memories of a heinous past hold strong, we are here today because we are determined to have a better and peaceful tomorrow,” Andrews added.
For more information on other recipients of the inaugural peace prize, the lists of finalists, members of the International Awards Committee, and nomination forms and deadlines for the 2010 peace prize, please visit www.wvi.org/peaceprize