Two a half hours from Kigali, tourists on the way to join gorilla-watching safaris unknowingly pass by a miracle in the making. Kimonyi Reconciliation Village (population: 360 adults – children are not included in counting populations) was started by Rwanda Prison Fellowship, with the challenge from the government to bring the victims and perpetrators from the genocide together and help them to be reconciled and to develop their communities together. On a previous visit, the village leaders shared that the village would greatly benefit if each family had a goat. Friends accompanied Gerrit on his second visit and donated funds for each family to have a goat. They also supplied funds for a veterinarian to vaccinate the goats and train the people on how to care for their livestock and to breed them.
“Only God could do that…”
The village came out in force again and requested time to share testimonies: Michael shared on how he fled to the Congo after committing atrocities during the genocide. After returning to peaceful Rwanda, he was welcomed into the village and is now married to a Tutsi woman – from the very people he had killed before. He exclaimed that only God could do that; his victims and God had forgiven him. Chantel shared that she had lost her parents and siblings during the genocide. As she grew into adulthood, she feared the Hutus and would hide from them. In the reconciliation Village she found God at work and they have learned how to live in peace; there is unity. Once again, she stated that it is only in and through Jesus that this transformation could happen.
The first people to return with help!
Someone commented that the people in the village had changed since Gerrit’s first visit: they had hope in their eyes. The village leader also exclaimed that usually people come to the village, take pictures but then there is nothing. A member of Prison Fellowship Rwanda said we were the first people to return with help! The people danced and sang jubilantly because he had returned once again.
Leader, Mozanezi, explained also that in the past few months the village has organized itself into 6 cooperatives; each started a small savings account to help them reach their goals:
1. A dance group that takes the message of salvation and reconciliation to places where there is still hatred and isolation. Their biggest needs are funds for costumes and for traveling expenses.
2. Vocational training: this group raises funds to start training in welding, sewing and woodwork. The youth are idle and this will provide skills and allow opportunities to earn an income.
3. Agricultural cooperative: training in growing crops and raising livestock.
4. One savings cooperative works towards enabling each household to have a mattress. Currently most villagers sleep on woven mats. Many of the women are widows and are elderly.
5. Weaving cooperative: They are working on raising funds to assist the village children in buying school supplies, school uniforms and paying school fees.
6. The planning and building of a community meeting hall is another cooperative initiative. During rainy season they cannot meet as a community without such a building.
Every cooperative meets once a month and all conflicts are resolved by the community themselves.
Before we went to visit houses and see how some goats have already multiplied, we could share that the donors had donated funds to each cooperative, enabling them to reach their goals sooner.They have great needs, but the love of Christ shines in and through them.
