PRISON MISSION: TUTSI REACHES OUT TO HUTUS
Deo Gashagaza had every reason to want revenge against the Hutus who killed his sister and hundreds of thousands of his fellow Tutsis in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
For a time, he seethed with hatred.
A religious man, Gashagaza turned inward, and fasted and prayed for spiritual guidance. On the third day, he said, he felt that God was telling him to reach out to the Hutus who were in prison for their crimes.
He set aside his thirst for revenge and instead entered into Rwandan prisons, teaching forgiveness and reconciliation.
“This was a big happiness to my heart,” he said.
Gashagaza was at Wake Forest University yesterday to talk with students about the Rwandan genocide and the power of what has
been called “radical forgiveness.”
He is the executive director of Prison Fellowship Rwanda, which brings together victims and perpetrators of the country’s genocide, which left about 800,000 people dead.
Part of his ministry involves establishing experimental “reconciliation villages” where Hutus and Tutsis live together peacefully in an attempt to help the country move beyond its bloody past.
One of the big needs in the villages is preschools, which is where Mary Martin Niepold comes in.
Niepold, a journalism instructor at Wake Forest, started the Nyanya Project three years ago. The nonprofit organization focuses on helping African grandmothers who care for grandchildren orphaned by AIDS.
The group has recently started two preschools in Kenya. The schools provide work for some grandmothers and offer others a safe place for their grandchildren to stay while they work.
Over the summer, Niepold was in Rwanda trying to figure out how and where to start a preschool in that country. A mutual contact arranged a meeting with Gashagaza, who told her that one of the reconciliation villages was in need of a preschool.
“Well,” Niepold said she thought to herself, “I guess this is our location.”
Niepold and Gashagaza are now trying to raise money for a preschool. The startup costs will be about $73,000, Niepold said.
A preschool can have far-reaching effects, Gashagaza said. Besides the economic benefit to grandmothers, a new generation of Hutus and Tutsis will learn to live together.
“We are building a new culture of peace,” he said.
lo’donnell@wsjournal.com
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