First Lady Jeannette Kagame yesterday called on members of Unity Club to embrace and support an initiative dubbed Ndi Umunyarwanda as a measure to sustain unity and reconciliation among Rwandans.
Yesterday, the club met for it’s sixth general assembly at Gabiro School of Infantry, in Gatsibo District.
The First Lady told the over 300 delegates in attendance that as leaders, they need to be the torchbearers, analytically look at the problems the country is faced with, and come up with a befitting solution.
She challenged the leaders present to take it upon themselves to ensure that every Rwandan is proud of being one, in what she called the ‘Rwandan spirit’ lauding the country’s youth who dreamed the ‘Ndi Umunyarwanda’ initiative.
“Our aim of establishing Unity Club was to advance peace, unity and reconciliation, open dialogue and truth. These values have enriched our understanding and fit well in this initiative of Ndi Umunyarwanda,” said Mrs Kagame.
Ndi Umunyarwanda, (I am a Rwandan) is an initiative by Rwandan youths aimed at having an open dialogue, telling the truth, repentance, forgiveness and healing mainly to strengthen the culture of accountability.
It was born out of the YouthConnektDialogue, an initiative by Rwandan youth, which aimed at looking beyond what divides Rwandans to have a nation that is built on trust.
She said that the youth, in coming up with the idea, presented to the leadership a challenge, and this calls for them to sit together and look from amongst themselves, for a way this spirit can be entrenched in all Rwandans.
“It is hard to measure the way we, as leaders, have been transformed ideologically as we continue to engage in such forums, but I am confident there is a major positive shift if I am to gauge from the time this club was formed,” she said.
Mrs Kagame pointed out that one of the main issues that led the Genocide against the Tutsi was ethnic divisionism, “but we cannot dwell on how Rwandans were divided; instead, we need to put much of our focus on the root causes of such divisionism.”
She said that as leaders, they should build on the challenge presented to them by the youth, to come up with tangible solutions, by the time the country marks the 20th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, which is by April next year.
In reference to Ndi Umunyarwanda initiative, Deputy Chief Justice Sylvie Zainab Kayitesi said the programme is aimed at ensuring openness among Rwandans and the ultimate goal is ensuring that all Rwandans move at the same pace in the course of development and social welfare.
The first vice president of Unity Club, Monique Nsanzabaganwa, said that the previous fora dwelt on similar topics of uniting Rwandans.
“We decided to hold this session under the topic of Ndi Umunyarwanda as a way of empowering the initiative of healing. We can only realize true healing if leaders take a journey into themselves, bring out what has been bothering them, forgive and ask forgiveness,” said Nsanzabaganwa.
Other key speakers at the two-day forum were Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi and Bishop John Rucyahana among others.
Unity Club, which was formed in 1996, is a non-profit organisation which brings together current and former senior government officials and their spouses.
Source The New Times.
