10 years in Rwanda

On 27th January 1997, three years after the terrible genocide five Holy Family Sisters arrived in
Rwanda to found a community in Rushaki in the diocese of Byumba. They arrived amidst a people that had been decimated not only by the genocide but by the flight of so many to neighbouring countries, abandoning houses and fields and relatives who could not travel.

The new community was one of different cultures, experience and ages. Agnes was from Belgium and had worked for years in South Africa; Franca from Italy came from the
Congo; Christine Abanga and Jacqueline Imbungu were Congolese recently professed and were on their first mission and Ma. Jesus, from Spain had worked in
Peru. Counting on God Alone and the support of the whole Family, they began by exploring the hills around Rushaki and opening their house and hearts to so many people who had been diminished by the war, anguished and vulnerable. Aware of the scarcity of their resources, but with faith and trust in the Lord they set about the task of inspiring hope and respect to all Rwandans in their reach. Likening themselves to the “flowers of the desert that grow on the edge of an abyss or at the foot of ruins and tombs,” they set about responding to a whole range of urgent needs opened up before them.

Their immediate response was in Health Care: the Sisters began work in the Diocesan Health Centre. A year and two years later they were hit with epidemics of malaria and other infectious diseases. The hills became infirmaries. Next came the Nutrition Centre, taking care of hundreds of children and mothers, undernourished by the destruction of their harvests, their displacement and several months in refugee camps.  With the help of many people of good will and various organisations, they did their best to respond creatively to the urgent needs that presented themselves: tuberculosis and AIDS, mental illness, orphans and physically handicapped people.

The Centre, Nazareth House of Peace is inspired by our Corporate Commitment: “As consecrated women, becoming more conscious of our own dignity, we wish to affirm and promote the dignity of woman so that together we take our place in the Church and society and contribute to the transformation of the world in our own specific way.”
It opened its doors on 2nd June 1997.

It began with literacy classes and education for life, but quickly expanded to include cookery,  cultivation of the soil, gymnastics. The classes and pupils multiply as if they were infectious.

PASTORAL WORK AND EDUCATION All during these years the community has been trying to attend, as far as its possibilities allow, to the calls from the secondary school by giving religion classes when they can. They also take part in the training of catechists. The Sisters are very involved in the parish. They support the priest and committed laity. The people express their faith by flocking to Mass every Sunday. They come from afar and tom-toms, choral singing, dances and brightly coloured clothes give a festive air, an air of meeting and sharing. This sharing is completed in their visits to the villages where they meet with the people along the way. They go into their houses and share their own food and drink millet beer from the same calabash as a prolongation of the thanksgiving the Eucharist.

EVENTS THAT HAVE MARKED THE COMMUNITY: During the course of the years the community has changed and been reinforces. Some members have returned definitively to their own country and others have left for some time for studies. The current community consists of Joaquina, Maria Oteiza, Maria Jesus, and Franca, Christine (studying in Burundi, Scholastique, Weronika and Vicentia (a student in Butare) Jacqueline is finishing her nursing training in the Congo and Clementina is studying in
South Africa.

The Sisters see as a grace the foundation in 1998 of the Ugandan community, just 50 kms away from Rushaki. The two communities cultivate Family bonds and the difference of language is never an obstacle. Some Rwandan girls present themselves wishing to commit to Holy Family Religious Life. In December 2005, Scholastica the first Rwandan sister, made her final profession. At the moment there is a temporary professed and two pre-novices as well as a young person discerning her vocation to contemplative life.

TEN YEARS AND MANY CHANGES… Many of the changes affect health, political and social life and education …the State takes responsibility for some of these sectors and others are looked after by various organisations. Health staff is much more qualified, there is a social security system, and health insurance. They regularly carry out preventative examinations to detect AIDS, and retroviruses. The physically and mentally ill are better cared for and school attendance has been made obligatory.

The Sisters now face new challenges and must modify their work to meet these new ministries. The celebration of these ten years is an occasion to stand back, evaluate, and dream of a future full of new dynamism without being afraid of leaving some activities and bravely  discerning new  priorities. It is one way of continuing to choose life in fidelity to our Holy Family
Mission.