The Living Bricks Campaign: A Unique Partnership to Rebuild Rwanda

“And much like the bricks they stack today, the Rwandan people are themselves ‘Living Bricks’-- each one a cracked but sturdy building block.”

--Excerpt from the As We Forgive film, a documentary depicting the reality and power of forgiveness in post-genocidal Rwanda

There is something both tangible and symbolic, humble and powerful, striking and uplifting, about the presence of forgiveness and reconciliation in a nation still scarred by memories of the genocide. Prison Fellowship International’s partnership with As We Forgive (AWF), an organization dedicated to eradicating genocide ideology and promoting practical reconciliation in Rwanda, makes possible the seemingly impossible: genocide perpetrators and victims come together in an attempt to rebuild the nation together. PFI and AWF have set off on a mission to repair Rwanda, one brick at a time, one individual at a time, one story at a time.

The Living Bricks Campaign is the product of this organizational partnership. LBC is a global movement, transforming lives in Rwanda and beyond. It is an initiative of reconciliation, providing a way for perpetrators to lay bricks, to build homes for their victims with their own two hands. It is a channel of communication between Rwandans who turned against each other in a time of intense tension and violence. It is a way for perpetrators to show that they seek forgiveness and for victims to actively respond by forgiving. It is a voice for all Rwandan people to express their desire to mend wounds and to repair what was broken.

Prison Fellowship Rwanda (PFR) focuses on transformation, reconciliation, and crime prevention in the genocide’s aftermath. AWF was built on the model documented in the As We Forgive film by Laura Waters Hinson, a model that depicts both the struggle and the reality of forgiveness in a land once ravished by genocide. Their missions come together in the Living Bricks Campaign, providing a way for the global community to get involved in this process of forgiveness and reconciliation.

How you can be a part of the movement: [Visit http://www.livingbrickscampaign.org to learn more about what can be done to restore Rwanda.]

• Help build a house.

Those 100 days in the Spring of 1994 left the nation in economic, social, and political ruin. It would take time and a new outlook to restore the country – spiritually, emotionally, and physically. The infrastructure of the country had broken down; the education system was in shambles; houses were demolished, people were left with nothing but bitterness.

Today, the power and necessity of forgiveness to rebuild the nation becomes ever more apparent. While it is not easy to forgive in light of such history, one of the most powerful things that an offender can do is to build a home with his own two hands for the person or family he harmed. This is the essence of the Campaign – the beauty of forgiveness made real. Forgiveness consists of both saying and showing. There is nothing quite like the gesture of laying the bricks of a new home. It is a gift.

You can give the gift of a brick. Your gift of $20 will ensure that new homes are continuously constructed in villages built on and sustained by forgiveness. To give a brick, go here: http://www.livingbrickscampaign.org/give-a-brick.php.

• View the As We Forgive trailer. http://asweforgivemovie.com/trailer.htm

• Watch the As We Forgive documentary. See http://www.livingbrickscampaign.org.

• Host a screening of the As We Forgive documentary. Check out the LBC website for more info.

• Host a fundraiser to rebuild houses and rebuild lives.

• Spread the word about the Campaign to your friends and family.

What is a Living Brick?

Brick: a building block that, after being put through fire, fits together with others to serve a larger structure

Living Brick: a person who, having been put through the fire, fits together with others through the mortar of reconciliation to rebuild a greater community

--The Living Bricks Campaign

Pastor Deo Gashagaza Meets With Success on U.S. Tour

Pastor Deo GASHAGAZA, Executive Director of Prison Fellowship Rwanda, recently embarked on a tour in the U.S. to spread awareness about the mission, vision, and initiatives of PFR. His trip began in early October and will continue through mid-November. While in the U.S., Gashagaza has visited universities and colleges, urging members of the youthful generations to step up to the plate and participate in positive change in Rwanda. He has encouraged audiences in different parts of the U.S. to actively engage in Rwanda’s future. He was a keynote speaker at the One Life Rwanda Gala event, held in Washington D.C. to benefit the Street Children Program, made possible through the Mustard Seed Project.

Building a good number of relationships and contacts with people in the U.S. so far has been one of the great successes of the trip. Pastor Gashagaza says that God has been faithful in speaking through him as he travels.

On October 26, Gashagaza visited Wake Forest University, where he connected with Mary Martin Niepold, a journalism instructor at WFU. Niepold, who visited Rwanda last summer, is the founder of the Nyanza Project, a non-profit initiative that seeks to intervene in the lives of grandmothers caring for grandchildren orphaned by AIDS in Africa. Gashagaza is now working with Niepold to plan the construction of a preschool in one of PFR’s Reconciliation Villages. The preschool will serve not only to educate the children in the villages, but also to provide employment opportunities in the village. The preschool is foreseen as a necessary and fruitful part of the community, offering much to villagers and to the transformation of Rwanda in these decades immediately following the genocide.

To see the full press release about Gashagaza’s visit to WFU and about this partnership with Niepold Nyanza Project, go here: http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2010/oct/27/waging-peace-advocate-of-radical-forgiveness-in-rw-ar-485869/.

Last Photo Credit: Gashagaza speaks at WFU. Jennifer Rotenizer, Winston-Salem Journal