More than two decades ago, on my first visit to Rwanda, I felt a deep stirring in my heart - a calling from God to do something for the nation. The 1994 genocide against the Tustsis left an imprint on my soul, but for years I didn’t know exactly how I was meant to respond. The answer came gradually, shaped by my understanding of community, compassion and healing.
There was a time when people lived in close - knit communities, where no one suffered alone. If a neighbour experienced loss, it was felt by all- a private grief became a shared burden. There was an unspoken commitment to care: “If there is anything we can do, let us know.” From an early age,
I learned that looking after others is at the core of what it means to be human. True compassion comes from the Latin words pati (to suffer) and cum (with), meaning to suffer with. Long before formal counselling existed, people instinctively knew that compassion meant stepping into another’s pain, standing beside them in their sorrow, and offering comfort through presence and understanding. It was this understanding that led me to the survivors of the genocide, to walk alongside them in their healing journey.
My mission became clear: to help transform trauma into healing. Through counselling and pastoral care training, I sought to equip individuals- both lay people and professionals - to support their communities. The vision was not just about recovery but about ensuring that unhealed wounds would not be passed onto future generations.
Having experienced profound healing and comfort from God in my own life, I felt called to extend that same comfort to others. Umuhoza means comfort- and that is the heart of this project. This is how the Umuhoza Project was born.