Rwandan Partners
Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC)
Founded in 2003, HROC strives to provide psychological support and training to Rwandan people and communities that have experienced genocide, sexual/domestic violence and trauma of any kind; simultaneously HROC-Rwanda promotes peace education to establish a future generation guided by nonviolent and harmonious values.
Discipling for Development
Discipling: We offer whole-life discipling and hope to the poor—mentoring people to become all God intends them to be, so they can do all God intends them to do. Developing: Experienced disciplers help people help themselves—solve their community’s problems, take control of their own lives, and reproduce this process in others. Transforming: While community members grow as whole persons—physically, socially, psychologically, and spiritually—their lives are transformed.
Help Increase the Peace Project (HIPP)
In March 2016, EFCR received an $8,000 grant from Quaker Service Norway to conduct a year-long youth training program, Help Increase the Peace Project (HIPP). is a participatory, experiential program developed by AFSC in 1991 to address issues of interpersonal violence, prejudice, and injustice with participants of all ages, with a focus on middle-and high-school age youth. HIPP is currently in use in more than thirty states and in countries around the world.
Friends Peace House
Friends Peace House was founded by Evangelical Friends Church of Rwanda in December 2000 as a witness to peace, reconciliation and conflict resolution in Rwanda following the 1994 genocide and war. Its mission is to promote peace, unity, and reconciliation among the people of Rwanda and to holistically contribute to the development of the Rwanda society. It is a faith-based organization, but works without discrimination with regards to race, religion, or gender. Friends Peace House Rwanda is registered NGO in Rwanda and has an autonomous board of directors and independent finances. Friends Peace House is known as Urugo rw’Amahoro in Kinyarwanda—The Home of Peace.
Transformational Leadership Center
The Transformational Leadership Center is a Rwandan nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering communities around Rwanda to transform their livelihoods. The Center sponsors the Children’s Peace Education Network of Rwanda whose primary focus has been the development of Children’s Peace Libraries. The first Children’s Peace Library opened in 2009 has become a cherished place to many of the children of the Kicukiro neighborhood in Kigali. Outside the capital, libraries in Gisenyi and Kanzenze (Rubavu District), Byumba (Gicumbi District), and Ruhengeri (Musanze District) provide unique spaces where Rwandans have free access to children’s books. They have become centers for literacy and learning, and a home to programs teaching nonviolent conflict resolution.
Prison Fellowship Rwanda
EFCR joined with Prison Fellowship Rwanda (PFR) in 1995 as it began its work in prisons in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, when over a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the span of 100 days. PFR was first recognized as a registered non-profit organization by the government of Rwanda in 2001 and in 2002 PFR became a member of Prison Fellowship International. Since then PFR’s work has expanded beyond the prisons and into communities, working to instill practical reconciliation among all Rwandan people directly or indirectly affected by the genocide and other crimes through economic development and spiritual healing to create communities of restoration. Prison gospel teachings are carried out within all 14 prisons in Rwanda by PFR chaplains. The picture below demonstrate inmates salvation in Rwandan prisons.
Turning the Tide
Turning the Tide (TTT) is a program of Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW). QPSW works with and on behalf of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain to translate our faith into action. TTT works with Quakers and nonviolent activist groups around the world to advance the understanding of active nonviolence and its use for positive social change. They offer our resources and experience to individuals and groups through training workshops, consultations and publications. TTT works with groups to design workshops that meet your specific needs. Popular workshop topics include: active nonviolence, building the alternative, challenging oppression, empowerment, nonviolent direct action planning and preparation, strategy and campaigning, consensus decision-making and effective group work.
International Partners
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice, as a practical expression of faith in action. Drawing on continuing spiritual insights and working with people of many backgrounds, we nurture the seeds of change and respect for human life that transform social relations and systems. AFSC has more than nine decades of experience building peace in communities worldwide. Founded in the crucible of World War I by Quakers who aimed to serve both humanity and country while being faithful to their commitment to nonviolence, AFSC has worked throughout the world in conflict zones, in areas affected by natural disasters, and in oppressed communities to address the root causes of war and violence. From our experience, we know that peacemaking requires more than merely advocating against one war or another. Real peace is more than the absence of war. Rather, we need to change the culture, situations, and systems that lead to violence. AFSC knows that miracles can happen when we build the capacity for peace person-by-person, community-by-community. When people understand the terrible consequences of violence and witness realistic alternatives, they come together as a powerful force to address the underlying causes and lay the foundation for lasting peace.
Alternatives to Violence Project
The Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) is a training program enabling participants to deal with potentially violent situations in new and creative ways. Workshops are delivered by our trained facilitators and are experiential (not based on lectures). Workshops draw on the shared experience of participants, using interactive exercises, discussions, games and role-plays to examine the ways we respond to situations where injustice, prejudice, frustration and anger can lead to aggressive behavior and violence. An AVP workshop can help you to: manage strong feelings such as anger and fear, deal more effectively with risk and threatening situations, build good relationships with other people, communicate constructively in difficult situations, recognize the conflict management skills you already have, be true to yourself while respecting other people, understand why conflict happens, approach conflict in a more creative and less reactive manner, and consider your own relationship to systems of violence.
Compassion International
Compassion International is a child-advocacy ministry that pairs compassionate people with those who are suffering from poverty. The ministry releases children from spiritual, economic, social, and physical poverty. The goal is for each child to become a responsible and fulfilled adult. Compassion’s work has grown from modest beginnings in South Korea in 1952 when American evangelist Rev. Everett Swanson felt compelled to help 35 children orphaned by the Korean conflict. Today it is a worldwide ministry where millions of children are now reaping the benefits of one man’s clear, God-given vision.
Evangelical Friends Church International
Evangelical Friends Church International exists to help local Friends churches around the world meet the spiritual needs of their communities. Our desire is to stretch across racial, cultural, national, even denominational barriers to reach people with the life-changing love of Christ. Over 1,100 Evangelical Friends churches representing more than 140,000 Friends in 24 countries are actively carrying out this critical mission. The Evangelical Friends Church International Africa Region represents Evangelical Friends of Africa. Currently the affiliated Friends include the Burundi Yearly Meeting, Rwanda Yearly Meeting, and the Friends in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (functioning as a Yearly Meeting yet not officially recognized as such). There have been outreach efforts into Uganda and Tanzania.
Evangelical Friends Mission
The purpose and passion of Evangelical Friends Mission is to fuel a worldwide movement of people who seek first the Kingdom of God, planting churches that live and die to carry out the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment. Friends Culture: They achieve their goal inside the boundaries of Friends culture—Live communion with the triune God; Christ’s presence here and now; Every believer a minister; Authority of scripture; Servant Leadership. Guiding Principles: They achieve their goal inside the boundaries of these guiding principles—Teams; Language and culture learning; Presence and proclamation evangelism; Leadership development; Whole-life discipleship; Missionary sending; Sustainability.
African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI)
The African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI) is a program created by the Friends Peace Teams, an organization consisting of sixteen Quaker Yearly Meetings in the United States who have united to support the traditional emphasis of Quakers in promoting a more peaceful world. In April, 1998, the Friends Peace Teams realized that Quakers in the Great Lakes region of Africa, numbering almost half of the Quakers in the world, were in countries with a great deal of violence, social unrest, genocide, and civil war. Consequently in January 1999, an international delegation of seven team members visited Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. From this visit and subsequent discussions, the Friends Peace Teams decided to create the African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI) to support peacemaking activities at the grassroots level. AGLI responds to requests from local religious and non-governmental organizations that focus on conflict management, peace building, trauma healing, and reconciliation. AGLI sponsors Peace Teams composed of members from local partners and the international community. AGLI is a USA-based 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.
Friends World Committee for Consultation
Answering God’s call to universal love, the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) brings Friends of varying traditions and cultural experiences together in worship, communications, and consultation, to express our common heritage and our Quaker message to the world. The purpose of the Friends World Committee for Consultation is to encourage fellowship among all the branches of the Religious Society of Friends. The Quaker community circles the globe, spanning a rich diversity of regional cultures, beliefs and styles of worship. FWCC, through its four section offices, runs programs in different regions, uniting Friends around the world through Spirit-led fellowship.
GIZ (German Refugee Relief Group)
GIZ. Solutions that work. GIZ provide services worldwide in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment, energy and the environment, and peace and security. The diverse expertise of our federal enterprise is in demand around the globe, with the German Government, European Union institutions, the United Nations and governments of other countries all benefiting from our services. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is our main commissioning party, but we also work closely with the private sector, fostering successful interaction between development policy and foreign trade. EFCR has partnered with GIZ to provide services to refugees inside Rwanda.
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)
MCC is a global, nonprofit organization that strives to share God’s love and compassion for all through relief, development and peace. Its programs are committed to relationships with our local partners and churches. As an Anabaptist organization, MCC strives to make peace a part of everything we do. When responding to disasters MCC works with local groups to distribute resources in ways that minimize conflict. In MCC’s development work they plan with community and church groups to make sure the projects meet their needs. And MCC advocates for policies that will lead to a more peaceful world. EFCR partners with MCC to support the Conservation Agriculture and the Savings and Loans programs.
Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW)
Quakers recognize that there is ‘that of God in everyone’, and this leads us to renounce violence and to work actively for peace. Over many years Quakers have worked for peace—exploring and sharing creative nonviolent approaches to conflict and alternative approaches to violence. Quakers call for grassroots action and political change towards a peaceful, just and sustainable global society. Quakers work with different churches and faith traditions, and we offer a faith voice in secular networks and campaigns. Quakers in Britain aims to expand and deepen the influence and ability of grassroots peace activists in Eastern Africa to change the core conditions that lead to violent conflict. We help local change agents use strategies of active nonviolence to challenge corruption and abuses of power in Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi.
Quaker Peace Network
Violent conflicts present one of the most urgent challenges to the Eastern and Central African sub-regions. The region has witnessed one of the longest armed conflicts in Africa in the Sudan. It has, in recent history, experienced one of the world’s genocides, in Rwanda, closely followed by an even larger mass killings in the DRC. The situation in the DRC has been labeled ” Africa’s World War” because of the involvement of a host of other countries in the conflict. Burundi has experienced a civil war for most of the period since 1993, while ethnic and resource related tensions in Kenya have erupted into violence for most of the 1990s. In the same region, Somalia has experienced a civil war for the last 14 years following the collapse of the state, while a full-blown border war was fought between Ethiopia and Eritrea. In Northern Uganda, and atrocious war has been perpetrated for the last nearly 20 years, leading to massive displacements and suffering. In addition, and partly as a result of this state of affairs, illicit weapons have proliferated in the region, aiding the escalation of conflict have left their marks.
Quaker Service Norway
“Let your life speak,” says George Fox, one of the founders of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)/Friends Church. Jesus said that our first commandment is to love God, but that charity is equally important. Work for fellow humans is an important expression of our belief in God. Quakers have engaged themselves for peace, justice and good living conditions for all in over three hundred years. Quaker Service Norway runs projects in several places in the world, some with the support of NORAD and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Read more about Quaker peace efforts here. In March 2016, EFCR received a grant of $8000 to conduct Help Increase the Peace Project (HIPP), a peace-building training for youth in the Friends Church.