African Great Lakes

In the late 1990’s, in an extremely tense political environment, the 6,000 members of the Friends Church in Burundi, and 2,000 members in Rwanda, asked their leaders to work with Friends worldwide to find ways to break the cycle of violence. Connections began to develop around the concept of trauma healing. One of the directions taken, supported by African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI) was to develop a program on the model of the Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP), with a focus on healing trauma. The result is Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC).  CFSC partners with AGLI in supporting this work.

Janet Ross, Florence Ntakarutimana, and Sheila Havard

In the fall of 2009, CFSC and AGLI sponsored a speaking tour in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick by Florence Ntakarutimana, a Burundian Friend working for HROC. Julie Berry, a Canadian Friend who heard Florence on her speaking tour, summed it up this way:

“We heard about the healing work she does with people who were either victims or perpetrators of brutal killings during the Rwandan genocide; it was hard to comprehend the horror her friends, family and neighbours had gone through, but it was even more difficult to accept that the two sides could come together in true forgiveness and reconciliation. Truly, the work that Florence does, and the vision and dedication of all the people who make up HROC are reasons to rejoice. What an inspiration!”

CFSC is in close touch with Friends in the region, and helps with their initiatives “as way opens”.  Often our support is organized in partnership with one of these three Quaker partners:

Workcamps

Canadians wishing to join one of Africa Great Lakes Initiatives workcamps should contact CFSC via qpasc [at] quakerservice.ca.  The workcamps are a marvelous way to experience peacebuilding first hand.

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