Rwandans commend Ndi Umunyarwanda Program for promoting Cohesion

People have been praising the Ndi Umunyarwanda Program saying it has helped them to overcome Tribalism and boost Unity and Reconciliation in the country.

Officials in the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission have noted that the Program has indeed helped people to break free of the past.

The people we spoke to told us that the Ndi Umunyarwanda Program has allowed them to move on from the divisionism that plunged the country into the fastest Genocide in recorded human history and that they see a bright future for themselves and their children.

Emerence  Nyirabakiga, a resident of Gasabo District said, "The people we used to look at with hate are now our friends, and no one refers to one another as a Tutsi or Hutu. We share what we have and are equal before the law. We also want our people to follow the ways of the Rwandan Cultural Values,". 

 Nyirabakiga's comments were echoed by Nazaire Sebukayire, also a resident of Gasabo. 

"The Ndi Umunyarwanda Program has produced very positive results: we intermarry and talk as we used to and i am not lying to you by saying these things. More people need to know of this, and the Program needs to take firm roots. Even young children in schools should know that they are no longer discriminated against in schools," Sebukayire said.

The program is now also taught in Schools and that positive results have been seen as well, thanks to the formation of Unity and Reconciliation Clubs. 

In Churches and other religious establishments, the Ndi Umunyarwanda Program has also taken root. 

Azarias Hakizimana, a Pastor at Zion Temple sad that; "We talk about it all the time in the Church, and what shows this is the fact that our Congregation sits together with no problems. We also want to pray for families in homes, resulting in even more progress."

Officials in the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission have noted that the Program has indeed helped people to break free of the past, since its establishment in 2013.

"It is a stable forum that enables people to meet and freely talk, understanding our history and explain it among themselves. It helps them to understand what others had to endure, and not to let themselves remain trapped by that painful past. It has also helped people to embrace Rwandan Cultural values and apply them in their everyday lives," Fidèle Ndayisaba, NURC Executive Secretary said. 

In 2018 the NURC found that many Rwandans have praised the Ndi Umunyarwanda Program for its effectiveness, while Unity and Reconciliation was found to be at 92.5% back in 2015.