Called to Witness

Rwanda 2004: Overview

Called to Witness participants spent some of their time in Rwanda staying in three different parish communities, so each subgroup was able to meet Rwandan people in their homes and on their hills, and was able to get a sense of the rhythm of daily life.

Map of RwandaAccommodations during their stay varied. In Kigali (the capital of Rwanda) they stayed at the Hotel Chez Lando which offered very comfortable accommodations. In the parishes, they stayed in simple rooms at the parish compound. Some groups had access to running water in or near their bedrooms and others got to experience "showering" with a bucket of water and a cup.

They visited a variety of programming while in the parishes. They met with parish associations and organizations such as: parish councils, sub-parish leadership groups, small Christian communities, peace and justice commissions, caritas, evangelization, HIV/AIDS, Widows/orphans, youth and similar ministry focused groups. They also visited some CRS HIV/AIDS programs, agricultural programs, youth programs, and food security programs. The experiences in each parish were slightly different, but the themes running through the visit were often the same.

On September 18, the group departed Kigali together for a trip to Lake Kivue. At the lake they had a few hours for prayer and reflection and lunch with each other and the several members of the CRS staff in Kigali. They returned to the capital and on to the airport for their departing flight.

Rwanda 2004: Resources

Background Materials

Kigali, as seen from the genocide memorialRwanda culture and history is very rich. As you may know April 2004 marked the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. CRS produced some online educational materials to commemorate the anniversary.

As part of their commemoration activities, the Washington College of Law at American University also developed a great resource on Rwanda which can be found as an online PDF document [1.7 MB] (on page 7-8 of the resource is an extensive list of web links, books and movies about Rwanda).

Get Involved

CRS maintains a special "Get Involved" page for High School youth and the people who work with them.