Building Reconciliation

Pacifique uses a machete to chop wood to stoke the fire for lunch while a few feet away the man who killed her brother and sister thrusts a shovel into wet cement being used to finish construction of her house. This is what reconciliation looks like for many villagers in Rwanda after the genocide here in 1994. Theosphore admits to being in the group that killed Pacifique's family. Now he plays with Pacifique's 2 year-old daughter and jokes around with her like old friends.

The 22 year-old woman looks more like a tall, slim teenager than a mother raising 3 children. Pacifique credits REACH with this seemingly impossible transformation that has allowed her to tolerate seeing her family's killer each day for months.

REACH (Reconciliation, Evangelism And, Christian Healing) in Rwanda coordinates seminars where participants learn about the history of the Rwandan genocide, the role of the church in the genocide, and the possibility of asking for forgiveness and accepting apologies from killers. For people like Pacifique living in poverty in a remote village in eastern Rwanda it is clear, there is little choice.

REACH pays for the supplies and workers to build homes for genocide survivors like Pacifique. They have helped to build dozens of houses in the last 2 years in the Kirehe district. Across the country 1,000 people participate in continuing efforts to build reconciliation through construction projects, singing and dance groups, and a soccer league.

While Theosphore spreads cement around windows, Pacifique is already living in the unfinished house sharing a twin bed with her husband. There is no running water, electricity or latrine. When the house is finished in two weeks the only improvement will be a freshly dug latrine. Pacifique says she had to get out of her aunt's house because her only surviving relative was unwilling to help feed her 2 year-old daughter. Pacifique says, "the man she lives with," helped pull her out of that situation by paying for her meals at a restaurant for 3 months. Pacifique encouraged him to pay for food so she could cook for him instead. Then they began living together.

Theosphore is a father of three living with his wife, 1 mile from Pacifique's house. He says he killed because the government desensitized people to kill. He says he has apologized because the government sensitized people to confess their crimes. He says, "If the government asked people to kill again, I would die or be killed. I could not kill again."

Pacifique says the REACH seminars gave her the ability to reconcile with Theosphore. She plans to go back to school soon. Her outlook for the future is optimistic, "We are reconciling and people are happy, there are few problems."

On this day her only concern seems to be peeling cassava so that she, her children and the reformed killers can eat lunch together underneath her new blindingly shiny sheet-metal roof.

What reconciliation looks like

Jean Gihana calmly admits that he armed and directed a band of killers in his neighborhood during the Rwandan genocide. Confessing got him out of prison early, and today he counts survivors as his friends. "For the one person who I killed, I have apologized to his family." Jean said in an interview outside a seminar on reconciliation and healing conducted by REACH in Kirehe District, Rwanda. Initially, he said he couldn't determine how many people died due to his orders. Asked to guess, he said "42."

"For the 42 people I ordered others to kill, I have apologized to the government. Each man who killed apologizes to the family of the victims," 42 year-old Jean Gihana explained. He said the government is to blame for the fact that he took a machete and slashed a man named Paul, murdering him during the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. Though he does not seem to take responsibility for the murders he ordered, Jean also offers that as a leader of his neighborhood's Interahamwe, he supplied men in his neighborhood with guns, machetes, and studded clubs so that they could kill their neighbors.

Jean, who has  four children together with his wife, says he has apologized to Paul's family and they accepted this apology. Paul is friendly with Anyesi, a bright, friendly and upbeat grandmother of four with a hearty laugh. They were neighbors before the killings and today.

Anyesi's ability to forgive and move forward is incredible. She has forgiven killers who slaughtered her husband and her three sons. She and her daughter were the only survivors. She even forgives the people who led her to identify her husband by a body part hanging from the town hall. Seeking shelter with her family, her own relative then raped her, blaming it on the fact she married the someone from the "wrong" group. He gave her HIV. After the genocide she adopted five orphans and she continues to care for several children today.

Since sharing her story with us for the first time in 2006 she has been attacked again. A neighbor, angry she has been encouraging reconciliation and identifying killers, snuck up on Anyesi. While she was cooking right outside her house one evening he walked up to her hiding his intentions, and smacked her in the forehead with a studded club-the same sort of weapon used in the genocide. The attack left a scar and lingering pain. Later, he confessed and promised to pay for her health care bills. Then he left town. She has forgiven him.

She also forgives Alexander, the man who helped destroy her house during the genocide. She even considers Alexander, his wife, and five children as her own extended family. Alexander receives Anyesi in the front room of his clay house. The home is surrounded by pigs, cattle, and plantain trees at the end of winding dirt road barely suitable for vehicles. They sit next to each other in an area formerly used as neighborhood bar, until the government somehow found it and shut it down.  Alexander justifies his action saying, "We did what the government told us to do. Otherwise we would be killed." He says he was very young at the time. He was 24 in 1994. Asked if he saw anyone punished for refusing orders, he said no.

Anyesi now leads a group of survivors and wives of genocide perpetrators in cooking meals for dozens of people. The women wouldn't even look at each other several years ago.  Now they credit the teachings of REACH (Reconciliation, Evangelism And Christian Healing), a ministry that aims to teach Rwandans about the history of colonialism, the church, and the genocide. REACH now pays the women to prepare meals for its seminars. REACH tries to teach participants about the value of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace building. This week they held holding a seminar in the Kirehe district of Rwanda near the border with Tanzania. In the seminar, approximately 40 released prisoners sit separately from about one dozen survivors on their left and a choir on their right. The singers are survivors and children of killers. In the front of the church a group of pastors rotates leading the discussions and lectures. The choir provides interludes to energize participants between preaching, bible reading, and small group discussions.

Anyesi has attended numerous seminars in the past, at first she says she wouldn't even look at the wives of killers. She says when she realized what was happening, survivors being paired with perpetrators' wives, she wanted to beat up Father Philbert Kalisa, the man who founded REACH and organizes seminars across Rwanda. Now she credits Kalisa with helping her to find a way to forgive and move forward.

Alexander credits Kalisa with helping to understand the power of forgiveness. Jean has been to other similar seminars and says that there are no longer any tensions in his neighborhood, "Everyone is happy," he said. He insists that the victims' families agree.

A Survivor's Fear & Hope

"I don't know what is in other people's hearts." Grace explained to us, and then nodded somberly, yes, the genocide could happen again. Grace is the only survivor of the genocide from her family. It is clear she is fearful, "I have to be vigilant. There aren't police officers to protect everyone."

She lives alone, an unusual circumstance in Rwanda, in the capital of Kigali. The area is one of the nicest neighborhoods with palm tree lined streets and embassies all around.

23 years old with a bright smile, she is two years away from a law degree. If you met her in the U.S. you might think she was just like any other young adult with a bright future. When asked about her experience during the genocide she fights back tears and cannot do it. But she openly shares her doubts about reconciliation in her native Kinyarwanda language.

At the Rwanda Youth Healing Center (RYHC) in Ruhango, a small town 60 miles outside the capital, Grace candidly tells us that she believes some killers confess because they know they will be treated favorably by the government. A confession and apology to survivors can get a prisoner released early and yield money for them to restart their lives in society.

Counselors at the center encourage the 70 children and young adults to aim high and work hard. The group, mainly orphans, travels from across the country to come together every other month. A medical student leads the group in a discussion, he acknowledges that reconciliation is a process, "We cannot resolve in 15 years what was 30 years in the making." He stresses the importance of sharing their stories and writing about them, if they can stomach it, to cope with post-traumatic stress. For Grace on this night it is too painful. When it comes to other topics her French flows quick and easy and she even tries some English. When she gets her law degree she is unequivocal in her desire to avoid working for the government. She wants to be an advocate for the rights of children. She is eager to share more and she has invited us to visit with her in Kigali.

37 boys and 33 girls will spend the weekend at the center before scattering across the country. Each one has a tragic story to share, though they are full of smiles, laughs, hugs and affection for each other.

We will return there tomorrow and bring you more stories of the people we meet.

Adam Mazo Ruhango & Kigali, Rwanda July 18th, 2009

6,000 victims, 12 survivors

Charles Mugabe should not be alive. Now he spends his summer vacations guiding visitors through the church turned memorial where he watched his twin brother die. He witnessed a killer decapitating a woman with a machete, hid for 3 days in piles of bodies and then escaped killers for 3 weeks by swimming through swamps. Charles is lucky.

He was one of 12 innocent Tutsis who hobbled out of the brick church. 6,000 other people were murdered where they sought shelter, in the sanctuary in Nyamata, a town 20 miles from the capital. The milita and soldiers used grenades, guns, machetes, clubs and sticks to slaughter them. Outside the church they slaughtered 6,000 more in a few days in April 1994. It was the beginning of the Rwandan genocide that claimed more than 1,000,000 lives in 100 days.

Charles survived by hiding his head in a hole 2 bricks wide and 4 bricks tall near the altar of the church. Before his brother died, he smeared blood all over Charles so that the Interahamwe (Kinyarwanda for: those who attack together) militia would think he was dead. For three days he tried not to move as the killers intermittently probed bodies to see if anyone was still alive. Eventually they found him by poking bodies. When they speared his ankle, he screamed. A scar remains. In the chaos Charles pleaded for his life. The killer spared him and told him to be quiet so no one else would know. He has no idea why. When he did finally leave along with the other 11 survivors, the killers heard footsteps. They fled back into the church and overheard the killers saying they would post a guard and come back in the morning to take care of the rest.

He and the others managed to sneak out. The killers spotted them again so they hid in a pile of bodies outside the church for another day eventually escaping to the swamps where they lived like hunted animals for 21 days.

Today, Charles is a soft spoken 23 year-old student in secondary school studying construction. Having lost nearly his entire family Charles now lives with one of 4 remaining survivors of the church massacre still living in Rwanda. He bounced from temporary homes to an orphanage to his grandmother's home as an adolescent. She died of natural causes in 2003. He asserts that he has not been traumatized by his experiences, though he says he flashes on the one murder he remembers vividly-- the decapitation of a woman with one slash of the machete. Charles believes that telling his story to visitors helps him to cope with these horrific memories.

Despite his unbelievable escape, Charles seems at peace. He strongly believes in the power of reconciliation to heal his community. For him it begins with a killer apologizing and confessing his crimes, only then, he told us, can the process move forward. It seems impossible to many of us. He insists that it is.

As we move forward we'll share more stories of the people we meet. We also hope to share some of what happens behind the scenes, negotiating in a third world country, working with our amazing Rwanda team, and adventures in finding the basic necessities.

Tomorrow we will be at REACH's grand opening of the Center for Unity and Peace, a project 8 years in the making. Then, we will join about 20,000 of our closest friends at the Amohoro National Stadium for the Hope Festival-- look for more on that this weekend (if our internet continues to function as well as it has been!)

--Adam Mazo, Director: Reconciliation's Reach Kigali, Rwanda July 16th

Greetings from Rwanda

Hundreds of jubilant Rwandans were blasting air horns, cheering, and dancing greeted the Reconciliation's Reach at the Kigali international airport today. Boys with bright green wigs and gold jerseys alongside men with elaborate masks and children pounding drums all stood by as we exited the airport into the 80 degree dry, dusty sunshine.

While the crowd awaited the return of their victorious national soccer team, recent winners of a tournament in Sudan, we left to enter the heart of the capital city. Our driver Kalisa, from Nyamata Rwanda, dutifully answered most questions with a bright smile and a sincere, “no problem” as he wound his way through Kigali's hilly streets to meet our translator at our hotel for the night. After several stops and starts, an unexplained stop at the gas station, a chat with policemen (former colleagues) and a call for directions, we found Dora Urujeni. Dora is a presence, with her long flowing hair of tightly wound braids greeted us like old friends with hugs and welcomes.

Immediately, it's clear she can take charge and get things done. Dora, a former member of Parliament, shepherded us around the city expertly to take care of business, checking out apartments for the month, changing money, buying a cell phone (remarkably cheap and easy, 10,000 Rwandan Francs, about $14) and a visit to the national soccer stadium. The renovated green, yellow, and aqua stadium looks much like any other in the U.S. and it houses the Ministry of Sport & Culture. Inside, fortunately the Minister's assistant remembers our many emails and conversations and will deliver our film permit tomorrow. As anyone who visits the third world will tell you, rarely does anything happen fast here.

Over “African Tea”, a sort of chai with ginger, we learn that Dora, like nearly every Rwandan has a remarkable and tragic story of her own. She was born a refugee in the Congo, her parents fleeing to escape pogroms in the 1970s. She was only able to return to Rwanda after the genocide in 1994 when she was 17 years old. Numerous members of her family were killed. Now she works to teach young people, aged 15-34 how to build peace and transform conflict. After studies at SIT in Vermont she is now completing her practicum on that topic. We can tell there is much more to Dora's story that we will surely learn in the coming weeks.

After a very long day photographer Scott Ippolito, producer Bob Koenig, and I shared a dinner of roasted goat brochettes, delicious grilled fish—probably talapia, served whole with a pile of onions and a fiery hot sauce that left us all groping another sip of our 75 cent beers. Following nearly 24 hours on planes and about 2 days without good sleep we are ready for some sleep under our mosquito nets.

Tomorrow we'll visit the National Genocide Museum here in Kigali, where hundreds of thousands of victims have been laid to rest. We will continue to update you as much as possible. The internet is intermittent and slow, we hope to be able to transmit pictures soon!

--Adam Mazo, Director, Reconciliation's Reach

Documentary Team Leaving for Rwanda

UPDATE: Our team is leaving for Rwanda beginning Sunday July 12th, 2009-August 11th. Come back here for updates.--- The Fourth of July is a time for celebration of liberation, quality time with family and friends and good food... in Rwanda. 15 years ago on America's birthday in 1994 is the date many Rwandans point to as the turning point in their national nightmare. On July 4th, 1994 exiled Rwandan fighters took over the capital of Kigali. But not before extremist Hutus slaughtered approximately 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis, also moderate Hutus. Neighbors picked up machetes to slaughter neighbors, husbands killed wives, children and their own parents. The Rwandan Patriotic Front forces then murdered hundreds of thousands more civilians, mainly Hutus in the weeks that followed. Amidst the killing, rape was commonplace.

Today nearly every Rwandan suffers from the psychological, if not physical scars, as they struggle to find ways to coexist. That battle is becoming especially difficult as the prisons, horribly crowded with killers, are releasing killers. The murderers often have no choice but to return to the same neighborhoods where they killed. The Reconciliation's Reach team will document encounters between these released prisoners and survivors. The two groups will spend several days together learning about the history of the genocide and beginning to attempt to find ways to rehumanize their enemies, work together, or at least live side by side peacefully.

One group, REACH, founded by a Rwandan Minister who lost 36 relatives in the genocide, will celebrate the culmination of 13 years of this work on July 17th. Our filmmaking team will be there as REACH opens its Center for Unity and Peace in Kigali.

The next day we travel to Ruhango village where young people come together for two days of learning, entertainment and fellowship at the Rwanda Youth Healing Center. Many leaders of the organization have grown within the group to become teachers. They focus on healing the psychological trauma of the genocide so that young people can lead productive lives.

July 21st we will travel to the village of Rusumo, a small town close to the border of Burundi. REACH will hold a 3 day workshop we will attend. We will stay in the village for several days to see what happens when participants take lessons learned back into their community. How do survivors cope with the knowledge their families killers are back living next door? How do killers manage to try to rebuild a life in a neighborhood they helped to destroy?

In late July we will visit a different 3 day workshop sponsored by AGLI (Africa Great Lakes Initiative) called HROC (Healing and Reconciliation Our Communities). This workshop in Gasabo brings together an equal amount of survivors with recently released prisoners. We will explore the different tacts the two groups take in their seminars.

All of these groups claim success in healing seemingly impossible rifts in relationships. Throughout our journey we will meet and get to know the seminar participants, introducing them to you to better understand how they are able to begin to reconcile and in some cases, why they are not. We invite your ideas, comments and contributions as we embark on this exploration. ---

See what else we've been up to:

-Photos from our recent benefit concert event

-A live interview with the filmmaker on ABC-TV:

Adam on ABC7

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Heading to Rwanda

The Fourth of July is a time for celebration of liberation, quality time with family and friends and good food... in Rwanda. 15 years ago on America's birthday in 1994 is the date many Rwandans point to as the turning point in their national nightmare. On July 4th, 1994 exiled Rwandan fighters took over the capital of Kigali. But not before extremist Hutus slaughtered approximately 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis, also moderate Hutus. Neighbors picked up machetes to slaughter neighbors, husbands killed wives, children and their own parents. The Rwandan Patriotic Front forces then murdered hundreds of thousands more civilians, mainly Hutus in the weeks that followed. Amidst the killing, rape was commonplace. Today nearly every Rwandan suffers from the psychological, if not physical scars, as they struggle to find ways to coexist. That battle is becoming especially difficult as the prisons, horribly crowded with killers, are releasing killers. The murderers often have no choice but to return to the same neighborhoods where they killed. The Reconciliation's Reach team will document encounters between these released prisoners and survivors. The two groups will spend several days together learning about the history of the genocide and beginning to attempt to find ways to rehumanize their enemies, work together, or at least live side by side peacefully.

One group, REACH, founded by a Rwandan Minister who lost 36 relatives in the genocide, will celebrate the culmination of 13 years of this work on July 17th. Our filmmaking team will be there as REACH opens its Center for Unity and Peace in Kigali.

The next day we travel to Ruhango village where young people come together for two days of learning, entertainment and fellowship at the Rwanda Youth Healing Center. Many leaders of the organization have grown within the group to become teachers. They focus on healing the psychological trauma of the genocide so that young people can lead productive lives.

July 21st we will travel to the village of Rusumo, a small town close to the border of Burundi. REACH will hold a 3 day workshop we will attend. We will stay in the village for several days to see what happens when participants take lessons learned back into their community. How do survivors cope with the knowledge their families killers are back living next door? How do killers manage to try to rebuild a life in a neighborhood they helped to destroy?

In late July we will visit a different 3 day workshop sponsored by AGLI (Africa Great Lakes Initiative) called HROC (Healing and Reconciliation Our Communities). This workshop in Gasabo brings together an equal amount of survivors with recently released prisoners. We will explore the different tacts the two groups take in their seminars.

All of these groups claim success in healing seemingly impossible rifts in relationships. Throughout our journey we will meet and get to know the seminar participants, introducing them to you to better understand how they are able to begin to reconcile and in some cases, why they are not. We invite your ideas, comments and contributions as we embark on this exploration. ---

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The Final Countdown

When we celebrate our independence across America on this Fourth of July, Rwandans will observe the 15th anniversary of the liberation of their capital, Kigali, and the beginning of the end of the genocide, a 100 day systematic slaughter of 1,000,000 human beings. This horrible chapter in the history of humanity is creating an unlikely opportunity. Two weeks after that anniversary, the Reconciliation's Reach documentary film team will be in Kigali to document an event 14 years in the making, the opening of REACH's Center for Unity and Peace. We will also spend a week in the village of Rusumo to record a 4-day seminar bringing together recently released killers with survivors. Witnessing these painful first steps toward rebuilding destroyed relationships and neighborhoods is powerful. We have seen that viewing these experiences motivates students in America to consider opportunities to improve their lives.

Today, you can join in these efforts aimed at developing student leaders in the U.S. and around the world to prevent violence, improve communities, and build peace.

Despite the recession, you have donated $65,000 cash and in-kind donations since last fall, allowing this project to grow. This includes a $10,000 grant from the Germeshausen Foundation. The Boston-based Foundation supports institutions including Harvard, MIT, WGBH, and the Museum of Fine Arts. Organizations including Facing History & Ourselves, the United Nations, and Boston Public Schools are interested in distributing our project to their audiences.

The total price of tickets ($8,000) for our 3-person team, is just about 10% of what you have already contributed.

Many of you have asked when the next fundraising event will be, this is it!

When everyone reading these words gives just $50, we can get to Rwanda to build on our efforts to prevent violence in our communities.

Please find donations instructions here: http://peacedocumentary.org/main/you.

Or go directly to our secure tax-deductible donation page (be sure to select "Reconciliation's Reach" for your Purpose of Donation)

Thank you~ Adam Mazo, Executive Producer

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