CARSA exists to support communities in their journey toward healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, and holistic development.

Dear esteemed stakeholders:

• Government

• Donors

• Key partners

• Community facilitators

• Peacemakers

• Beneficiaries

• Media practitioners

• Our families

• Fellow Rwandans

  
  

  On behalf of CARSA’s Board of Directors, the management, and the staff, I would like to wish you a happy beginning of the year and a peaceful holiday season.

  
  

  I am thankful that CARSA has been largely successful in achieving the overarching goals it has set, which are mainly to support communities in Rwanda in their journey toward healing, forgiveness, reconciliation, and holistic development.

  
  

  Thanks to the efforts and determination of every one of you, through your respective roles, your hard work, sacrifices, technical, financial, and advisory support, we managed to implement our various interventions.  We harnessed the power of the Resilience Cell Groups, Peace Conversation Cycle, Peace Conference, Cow for Peace, and Empower workshops to catalyze a culture of peace, solidarity, and unity in diversity in our society.

  
  

  We assure you of continuing this partnership and greater commitments to empower our communities, attain new goals together, and reach our objectives in 2024.

  
  

  We thank you very much and wish you a happy, peaceful, and prosperous New Year of 2024, a new year with new hopes for a better future.

  
  

In an effort to educate the young generation about the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and foster sustainable peace in their communities, as well as help them go beyond the prejudices inherited from their families and learn to solve conflicts constructively, CARSA conducted the PEACE CONFERENCE that was held on December 13, 2023, in

G.S. Saint Michel Cyeza and December 20 in TTC Muhanga and G.S. Shyogwe all schools located in Muhanga District, Southern Rwanda.

This school-based peace dialogue brought together over 1000 students from the abovementioned schools and allowed them to learn more about the history of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and its aftermaths from the testimonies and reconciliation process stories inaugurated by genocide survivors, former perpetrators, and Abarinzi b'Igihango (rescuers).

RWAMUCYO Narcisse, a genocide survivor, along with SIBOMANA Evariste, a perpetrator who killed his mother in the genocide, were both present at the conference. RWAMUCYO openly shared his traumatic story and post-genocide journey. He revealed how, at his young age, access to education was not as easy as it is today. Former students’ placements were done according to the ethnic group people belonged to. Thus, he did not manage to advance more in school.

After the Genocide, RWAMUCYO always thought to take revenge by killing Sibomana's entire family, as he did by killing his mother  “I joined the army force (local defense) to look for a gun for shooting Sibomana's entire family, as he did by killing my mother. By chance, I did not make it till I met CARSA, which helped me to regain hope and to be able to reconcile with Sibomana. Now, he is my best friend.” Rwamucyo said.

Mbonyingabo Christophe, Co-founder and executive director of CARSA has also advised the young students who were able to come to CARSA’s Peace Conference how to develop the character to be the real agents of peace, living in harmony, conflict resolution, and catalysts of economic development in their community and country at large.

In his talking points, he addressed the fact that many people ask him why he still focuses on educating young people about unity and reconciliation 30 years after the genocide and to a generation who did not witness and experience the atrocity and other ethnic discriminations that occurred in Rwanda.

“It took over 100 years to propagate and nurture the ethnic groups' politics that came to lead the Genocide; it will also take us more than that time to fully put in place what the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi destroyed,” Mbonyingabo pointed out.

This school-based peace dialogue provides space for young people to learn about the history of genocide in a way that builds common ground and paves the way to a peaceful resolution of any sort of conflict.

Let us embrace the power of the young generation to build everlasting peace!

Impact by Numbers:

CARSA has worked with 30 schools in Kamonyi and Muhanga districts based in Southern Rwanda, where over 4,000 students have been part of our Peace Education Program, including visits to the Kigali Memorial Site, peace conferences, clubs, football, and training. Now, they’re making a significant impact in their communities.

CARSA has seen a lot of success in terms of forgiveness, trauma healing of survivors and perpetrators, reconnecting families from conflicts, and reintegration of ex-prisoners, both in Muhanga and Kamonyi Districts. This has been mostly through the Empower Workshop project, and the community facilitators have been part of it for over 15 years.

The Empower Workshops will continue to be a stellar instrument in helping survivors heal trauma and psychosocial wounds as well as overcome family conflicts through individual counseling and group therapy. In this vein, CARSA successfully conducted a two-day Refresher Training for ten Empower Workshop facilitators on the 20th and 21st of December 2023 at Christ Hotel.

The refresher training aimed to repower and reconnect 10 community facilitators after a long time of dormancy due to the effects of COVID-19. To meet basic human needs.

All participants positively reported their personal experiences amid COVID-19 and the aftermath of COVID-19 and were eager to keep providing a steadfast nation for a share to help their community work together and live in harmony.

An appreciation post for CARSA’s Community Facilitators! We thank you for supporting genocide survivors and perpetrators on their journey to forgiveness and reconciliation! This work would be impossible without the sacrifice and passion of our facilitators!

These spaces are transformative platforms that reshape lives, empower members for the better, stand as beacons of hope and peace, and provide a steadfast foundation for a shared, peaceful future.

We are beyond words with gratitude for your generous ongoing support and sponsorship of our organization, which enabled us to make a huge impact on our mission over 20 years. Your donation is an incredible show of support. We can’t thank you enough for believing in us and investing in our cause.