Rwanda’s long road to peace and reconciliation
Located in the heart of Africa, Rwanda is a nation with a troubled past. In spite of this, the nation has recently made great strides in terms of its growth and development. We chatted to John Kalenzi, Team Leader of AE Rwanda, as he told us about some of AE Rwanda’s inspiring development projects.
Having seen the devastation caused by Rwanda’s genocide, John is particularly passionate about AE’s role in bringing true reconciliation to the hearts of people.
He describes that, “Reconciliation is at the centre of everything we do as AE Rwanda… to reconcile people with God, and also to reconcile people among themselves. We want to make sure that we build on what the government has done to build… peace and a justice system. But the government can’t really do reconciliation very well, because reconciliation is the issue of the heart… and the issue of the heart is the work of Christian ministries like AE and the Church… It is only the Word of God that can make a difference when it comes to reconciliation”.
With the deep trauma that Rwanda has experienced, it is so important that reconciliation is not merely skin deep. John describes his desire to see reconciliation that not only “discourages the opening of hostilities”, but that actually heals human hearts.