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I had always wanted to go to Rwanda ever since I was in college and saw the movie, “Gorillas in the Mist” about the mountain gorillas and Dian Fossey. I didn’t get the chance to go right away though, and later chaos and war erupted in the region.
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In 1993, there a genocide. The scale of the it was enormous—in a country the size of the state of MassachuseIs, 800,000 people were killed in 100 days. The country was leM in ruins.
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When Women for Women InternaOonal put together a donor trip recently, I went along, This group helps vicOms of war get back on their feet. In Rwanda alone, they’ve helped 40,000 women and they have programs in many other countries as well.
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I had no idea what to expect on the ground there, and I was absolutely unprepared for what I found there. I knew immediately aMer geRng off the plane that something was different. First, there was no trash on the side of the road; for a developing country this is highly unusual.
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I counted—it became my personal game. In 2 weeks of traveling all over I counted 4 pieces of garbage. What I did see, though, were fiber opOc cables lining the countryside—from border to border. This was a far cry from the devastaOon I expected.
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But there were reminders. Every village has a memorial commemoraOng the genocide. This church in Murambi preserves the clothes of the vicOms to serve as a reminder of the Ome when the Hutus killed their Tutsi neighbors and friends.
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The Hutus and Tutsi were tribes that were set up by the Belgians in the 1920s. Prior to that there had been no separaOon in the country. And interesOngly, though there was no foreign aid to stop the genocide, but there was plenty of it to feed it.
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The 100 day orchestrated and preplanned blitz was further fueled by the government and hate radio. No one was spared, not even children.
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I could not wrap my brain around any of it. How people could do this to each other? And how could the country go on aMer this to create a future—and a bright future at that? The answer begins with strong leadership, which they have in the form of their president, Paul Kagame.
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However, the credit is also due to the hearts of the Rwandan people. Their naOonal goal is reconciliaOon. Instead of revenge, they are seeking forgiveness with a vengeance. They will seIle for nothing less. First, though, jusOce had to be served. Many perpetrators are in jail now, although not all of them.
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The words Hutu and Tutsi are now banned in the country, and the people live and work side by side rebuilding their country.
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I realized in Rwanda that I don’t know anything about forgiveness because I haven’t experienced the unforgiveable. Maybe only when you cross that brink do you get to understand what really lies within the human heart.
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It’s not complete and it’s not perfect and it may never be, but as with anything, maybe it’s not necessarily the aIainment of something you seek that lightens your load, but the progress towards it.
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We’ve all probably thought at Omes that if we can just be, or do, or have more, that will make us happy. But, as we all know, that lasts about a minute if we’re lucky before we have to have something else. This is a typical village house. But, the owner could not be more proud or happy.
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She is a recent graduate of the Women for Women InternaOonal year long program. She’s now a business woman and she can send her children to school, finally.
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95% of the graduates are now able to send their kids to school. The training consists of not only vocaOonal training, but they also learn life skills, including what their rights are as women and as ciOzens. Many have had no idea about this, and learning it seems to empower them.
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Every woman at the graduaOon ceremony took out her bank book to show her progress, beaming with pride at page aMer page of 10 cent deposits. They couldn’t wait to show us what they had accomplished.
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It seems like so liIle but it adds up to so much. When a child can go to school it changes the village. When each village spends a half a day cleaning each month, soon the country is prisOne and the people have great pride in it.
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My struggle was to realize that my small contribuOon maIered in the face of such extreme poverty. When people know that others care—that we know what happened-‐-‐it helps them heal.
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This is what I’m passionate about-‐-‐the indomitable human spirit that can overcome seemingly anything and rise above.
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