“When it comes to dancing, we’re all about having fun. But when it comes to helping the people in Rwanda, we take that very seriously.”
Such is the philosophy of Santa Barbara’s Janet Reineck, who traveled to Rwanda for two weeks earlier this year with 20 dancers and supporters of her nonprofit World Dance for Humanity (WD4H).
Ripped apart by the 1994 genocide that left nearly 1,000,000 people dead in just 100 days, the Rwandan people continue the struggle to rebuild their lives.
World Dance for Humanity is aiding that recovery process by helping 9,500 people in 25 rural cooperatives rebuild their lives in the rugged east African nation. This year marked the group’s fourth major trip to Rwanda.
Money from dance class proceeds, individual and corporate donations, and funds raised from WD4H’s annual Thrill the World performance is used to buy farm animals, help co-ops start businesses, open schools, and fund scholarships for secondary and university students.
Funds raised from the Thrill the World event (which took place Oct. 27 at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden) also help pay for needy Santa Barbara children to attend after-school programs at the United Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County’s Westside clubhouse, where World Dancers volunteer year-round.
This summer’s travelers brought suitcases packed chockablock with 50 pounds of supplies for Rwandans, ranging from water filters to computers and cell phones, clothes, school supplies, books, eyeglasses, toothbrushes and solar lights.
They also carried reusable menstrual pad kits sewn by Carpinteria Community Church’s Crafty Ladies and Direct Relief, and bolts of colorful flannel cloth for the Rwandan women who are now making the pads themselves.
The group flew 16 hours from LAX to an overnight stop at Doha Airport in the tiny Middle Eastern country of Qatar, then on to Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, another eight-hour flight.
Undaunted by the threat of malaria, Rift Valley Fever (a deadly mosquito-borne disease that affects livestock and humans), and Ebola (an outbreak was occurring at the time in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo), the World Dance travelers covered 2,600 miles over land to visit the communities they serve.
Their small but sturdy bus was piloted by an intrepid Rwandan driver, Manuel, who skillfully skirted deep fissures in the dusty sienna-colored roads that run up and down Rwanda’s 1,000 hills.
At the conclusion of each spine-rattling ride, the travelers were greeted by a crowd of jubilant co-op members. They stepped off the van into welcoming bear hugs and were drawn into the joyous African dancing and singing.
“Amakuru? (How are you), Ni meza, cyane! (Very well),” was the familiar exchange in Kinyarwanda (Rwanda’s native language) that broke the ice between villagers and visitors.
At each co-op, after 20 or 30 minutes of hugging, dancing and singing together, everyone settled into white plastic chairs or wooden benches for a chance to talk and learn more about each other.
“Nitwa Olga. (My name is Olga.) Ndishyme kukabona. (I am happy to see you.)”
The dancers introduced themselves, some in English, others attempting to speak Kinyarwanda, which drew appreciative smiles and applause from the locals.
The same emotional exchange happened at every co-op, but the profile and projects of each group vary greatly: from Komera (Courage) and Umunezero (Joy) — chicken farms run by women with AIDS; to Tubehotwese (Let Us All Live) and Icyerecyezo (Vision) — which are building preschools; to Abakundana (Those Who Love Each Other) — Twa (Pygmy) widows and orphans who operate a sewing business and make reusable menstrual pads.
With the help of World Dance for Humanity, other groups have started bakeries, handcraft businesses, event-rental operations, brick-making and water-distribution enterprises.
Following are the stories of a few cooperatives World Dance travelers visited.
Never Again Fellowship
At Never Again Fellowship in Rwanda’s Kayonza district, two hours west of the capital, members of five cooperatives met with the World Dancers to talk about their lives, their work together and their hope for the future.
Focused on unity, reconciliation and forgiveness, Never Again Fellowship started in 2007 with 12 people from Rwanda’s three ethnic groups, who were intent on improving their lives by living and working together.
The co-op was helped along by Justin Bisengimana, an extraordinary leader who is WD4H’s program director in Rwanda. Today, Never Again includes more than 4,000 people living in nine rural cooperatives.
Bisengimana, who also acts as translator-in-chief, works with a small local team that includes education coordinator Chantal Kubwimana, program assistant Dany Rukundo and business coordinator Judy Rwibutso.
“We no longer look at our ethnicity or social background,” one member of Never Again said. “We come together for the benefit of all.”
Striving to reverse the divisive tribalism that led to the genocide, now even the mention of tribal monikers, Hutu, Tutsi and Twa (Pygmy), is a thing of the past.
“If they are working, they focus on the future, not going back,” Justin said. “If they are not working, they go into their past and start judging each other.
“It is even possible to work with somebody who killed their family,” he added.
Giving truth to his statement, Bisengimana introduced co-op members Augustin and Grace, who had been on opposites sides in the genocide. Augustin had murdered several members of Grace’s family. He spent eight years in prison for his crimes.
Incredibly, Grace has forgiven him.
Together, Augustin and Grace founded their co-op, Ruganeheza (Taking the Nation to a Better Future), working side-by-side and helping their community build a new life. Ruganeheza runs water and brick businesses.
“Augustin, who took part in the killing of my family, is now a brother to me,” said Grace, standing tall, eyes forward, a bright pink shawl draped over one shoulder of her long green and yellow dress. “When I need anything, he is the first person I call.
“We are setting an example for others. Our children are learning from us about love and reconciliation. Forgiveness is the light and peace in our country.”
Augustin outlined the history.
“Before the genocide, we were living in harmony with one another; there was no trouble,” said Augustin, tall, slim and wearing a brown suit jacket and gray pants. “But a history of bad governance led us to start fighting each other — one ethnic group started killing the other.
“I was living in the same neighborhood where many people from the Tutsi ethnic group were living, and the time came when we were told to start killing people in our neighborhood.”
Motioning to Grace next to him, he said solemnly: “This is one of the family members I cut down during the genocide.”
Among his victims were Grace’s husband and two of her children. Grace, who was pregnant, survived, as did two other children, a boy and a girl.
She was alive, but she did not know where to turn.
“I tried my best to connect with God, so I would be able to connect with people,” she said. “That was not easy for me.
“I looked at what genocide had brought to us. I couldn’t find any family members; no one was there.”
She began to believe the only way out was suicide.
“I thought, first I need to kill my children and then kill myself,” she said. “Everyone from my ethnic group was supposed to be killed. But my heart told me, you don’t need to kill yourself and your children, because, maybe, you try to kill yourself and you are not successful; what will happen then?”
She eventually made it back to a camp for survivors in a nearby church.
“I went back home and found everything had been destroyed,” she said. “My feeling was that I would never see this nation being born again, but I kept thinking about God and how God stopped me from killing myself.”
Turning to Augustin, the man who had killed members of her family, she said: “This brother of mine was brought out of prison to the community. He came and was very humble, very humble. He shared with us everything he had done. He was completely open to me and I forgave him.”
“I asked her for forgiveness,” Augustin said. “And she told me, ‘OK, I forgive you.’ She said it three times — ‘I forgive you, I forgive you, I forgive you.’
“Thanks to the help from World Dance for Humanity, which gave us goats and cows, helped our children go to school, and helped our cooperative start a business, we have been working together and supporting each other, and things are going well.
“We help each other, we understand each other, our families visit each other, and our children play together. We are united,” he said.
Grace agreed.
“We are different people than we were before,” she said. “We are brother and sister, we are no longer from different ethnic groups. We are united. I have started feeling peace and joy in my life.”
Inyabutatusabana (Three Peoples Unite)
“After the genocide, people were very aggressive toward each other,” said John, president of Inyabutatusabana, a co-op run by elderly farmers.
“We started encouraging our neighbors to work together and rebuild the nation,” he said. “Now we understand and support each other.”
Founded in 2008, Inyabutatusabana now has 286 members. WD4H supports its grass-cutting business, and sponsors two high school and two college students, who are being groomed to help lead their community out of poverty.
Education has proven key to Rwanda’s move toward reconciliation and economic recovery.
Scholarships provided by 200 WD4H sponsors enable qualified students to finish high school and attend college and vocational schools.
For most people, “Education stopped after the genocide,” Bisengimana said. “In school, the students develop their minds. Through our annual student leadership training, they learn self-sacrifice, confidence, and the skills they will need to lead their communities.”
Copakika (Our Unity)
Founded in 2017, Copakika farming cooperative is one of WD4H’s most recent partners. Some of the members are genocide survivors, some have AIDS. All are working together to build a better tomorrow for their children.
“This is a very poor area,” said Copakika’s president. “We thought about the future of our children. We started the co-op by collecting a little money from each of the women.
“We thought about various projects but couldn’t make them happen. Luckily, Justin connected us with World Dance for Humanity, and our lives are so much transformed.”
One of the contributions WD4H makes to co-ops like Copakika is mattresses. WD4H gave 70 mattresses to Copakika, one for each of the women who had been sleeping on thin mats or directly on the ground.
The mattresses are of special comfort to the many women there who suffer from AIDS.
“We used to sleep on the ground,” the co-op president said. “We are no longer struggling at night; we are sleeping so much better.”
In January, WD4H delivered 60 goats to Copakika, providing them with manure for their crops and a small income source for each family.
“I never dreamed of having a goat, and now I have one,” a co-op member said.
“We used to be very isolated,” said Esperanza, Copakika’s vice president. “We are stronger and can finance our basic needs. Before, this was not possible.
“I was given a goat that already had two babies,” she said. “We are prospering because of you. We have moved from isolation to being part of a bigger family that stretches across the world.”
“We are dreaming of starting a chicken farm,” the co-op secretary said.
This dream will come to pass thanks to one of the World Dance travelers who pledged to help fund the project.
Tubehotwese (Let Us All Live)
Atop a windswept hill at the end of a long winding road sits Tubehotwese Cooperative.
In far north Rwanda, on the Ugandan border, Tubehotwese’s spectacular panoramic views belie the fact that it is one of WD4H’s poorest co-ops. Its members are genocide widows and their families. Started by 12 people in 2007, Tubehotwese now has 413 members.
Naome, Tubehotwese’s beloved leader, died in January. Mourners traveled to this remote area from all 25 WD4H co-ops to attend her memorial. Despite the tragic loss of their leader, life in Tubehotwese is getting much better, highlighted by their preschool that was started with contributions from WD4H.
The little school is thriving with an additional classroom being built as the number of pupils grows. Salaries for its four teachers are subsidized by WD4H supporters.
A grant from Procter & Gamble Alumni Foundation enabled Tubehotwese to start a sewing business, which will provide a steady income to the community this year.
Kungabu Fish Farm
Located near scenic Lake Kivu in southwest Rwanda, Kungabu Cooperative was founded in 2008 by 30 destitute families trying to survive. Their leader, a village elder named Callixte, had a dream to create a tilapia farm.
With determination and hard work, they were able to dig 16 giant fish ponds by hand, but they soon learned their fish needed special food pellets available only in Uganda.
To remedy the problem, World Dance supporters raised the funds to provide a fish-food machine. The machine was assembled in China, shipped to Tanzania and trucked overland to Rwanda.
It’s the first machine of its kind in Rwanda, and has given Kungabu, and all the Rwandan fish farmers, a tremendous new resource.
After the dancers toured Kungabu’s fish ponds, precious clean water was hand-poured into small plastic basins so they could wash up before enjoying a feast of fried tilapia, potatoes and bananas.
It was a similar scene at other co-ops, where Rwandans, who are barely able to feed and clothe themselves, showered visitors with food and drink (pineapples, hard-boiled eggs, newly shelled peanuts, fat ears of corn, and Fanta), as well as handmade gifts.
Such demonstrations of love, understanding and abundant appreciation were the threads that ran through the entire 16-day journey.
“We are grateful for your willingness to be part of this broken-hearted country,” said Eugene, representing the family at Abaharaniramahoro (Struggling for Peace), which is part of Never Again Fellowship.
“Our lives have changed since we met you,” he said. “You loved us from far away. You are our model for love — the example for us all to follow.
“Your love is the biggest factor in our ability to help each other and build a better future.”
After the World Dance travelers returned home, they received this from Bisengimana:
“Dear Travelers: Thank you for your enthusiasm, patience, kindness, but most important, your love and your hunger to help the Rwandan people, which brought you to sacrificing your time and financial resources for the good of our country.
“We need to join our hands together to change lives, especially in this brokenhearted country where human faces couldn’t even remember if a smile has ever existed on them, where happiness and love were replaced by anger, depression, and hatred, where orphans had no hope of finding a family, where prosperity and well-being was a thing of the past. Thank you for helping rebuild such a nation like this.”
Thoughts about Rwanda
Trip leader Janet Reineck asked World Dance travelers to reflect on their time and experiences in Rwanda. Here is what a few of them had to say:
Pamela Albert: “I’ve never seen such joy, forgiveness, love and profound caring as we saw during the Rwanda trip. The people we visited honored us with smiles, hugs, food, comfort and love. We came bearing gifts, but they gave us something of far greater value. We cried tears of sadness and joy together. I brought home many gifts for family and friends, but I hope I’ve also brought home patience, kindness, forgiveness and love.”
Jessica White: “Gandhi said, ‘You find yourself when you lose yourself in the service of others.’ This was 100 percent realized for me, being in Rwanda with WD4H. I am so grateful for this life-changing experience and will hold the memories close to my heart for the rest of my life.”
Jill Pezzino: “Thank you so much for letting me join you on your trip this year. It was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had. I returned home so grateful to be able to turn on a faucet and have clean water, hit a switch and have light, and open a refrigerator and have food.”
Connor Meador: “The team in Rwanda and the Rwandans in the cooperatives are inspirational and their work is essential. The memories and lessons learned in Rwanda will stay with me for the rest of my life.”
Sydney Luca Lion: “Many people have asked me what we actually did in Rwanda, and I’ve told them about visiting the cooperatives. On the surface, those few hours of contact might seem inconsequential, but one of the most powerful things the co-op members told us was the value in getting to meet us in person, as it proves they have not been struggling alone.”
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— Marcia Heller is a Noozhawk associate editor for Noozhawk. Contact her at mheller@noozhawk.com.