August 20, 2010

CHICAGO – Imagine having your next board of directors meeting in a field, under a tree. The meeting includes delivering research reports, sharing blueprints and decision-making. This was the case for a group of people in Mumeya, Rwanda, for four years. Their efforts yielded a new health clinic that serves 17,000 adults and 13,000 children.

Since 1970 the people of Mumeya have been promised water, schools and hospitals – three critical needs identified by the community. No one had delivered on those promises until the Rev. John Rutsindintwarane, general secretary, Lutheran Church of Rwanda, offered a different approach in 2006.

He made no promises. Instead Rutsindintwarane offered his heart and mind and told the people of Mumeya, "If you use (my heart and mind) well, you will get where you want to go." When the people of Mumeya realized that Rutsindintwarane "was different," they organized, broke eight tons worth of stones and built a three-room health clinic that began providing care in 2009. Medical services are provided through the government's ministry of health.

The foundation for extra rooms to offer inpatient care is now under development.

Speaking to the ELCA News Service about the process of building a health clinic Rutsindintwarane said, "You start out dumb but come up smart."

The people of Mumeya had no idea how to build a health clinic, especially with very few financial resources, he said. People there live on less than two U.S. dollars a day. But through research, accountability and a strong faith, the people of Mumeya accomplished their goal in a country still recovering from genocide.

In 1994 more than 1 million Rwandans were killed in 90 days. The world, including the church, kept quiet, said Rutsindintwarane. "Bones are still being recovered today," he said.

"Today we are asking questions about homosexuality and sin. But during the genocide no one was saying, ‘killing is a sin.' Where was the church? I am still asking that question today," said Rutsindintwarane.

While the devastating effects of the genocide produced overwhelming hardships, survivors are rebuilding their beloved country.

"Poor people have the capacity to change if given the opportunity," said Rutsindintwarane, adding that change and rebuilding "comes from the ground up."

That belief led Rutsindintwarane to approach the people of Mumeya with the idea of addressing their most critical need – to build a health clinic.

Education helps rebuild a country

Rutsindintwarane was born in a refugee camp in Tanzania, when his parents fled Rwanda during persecution in the 1950s. He attended primary and secondary school, college and seminary and became a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania. Following the genocide in Rwanda, Rutsindintwarane was one of six pastors who accompanied refugees back home to Rwanda.

It was Rwandan refugees who started the Lutheran church after the genocide. The Lutheran Church of Rwanda's 40,000 members and 17 pastors are organized into 18 parishes with 75 congregations. Like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Lutheran Church of Rwanda is a member of the Lutheran World Federation, Geneva.

With his repatriation work, Rutsindintwarane was invited to speak in the United States and share his experiences. At someone's suggestion he studied conflict analysis and reconciliation, earning a master's degree from Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Va., and a master's degree in community development from Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa. Wartburg is one of eight ELCA seminaries. He also studied community organizing at PICO – People Improving Communities through Organization – based in Oakland, Calif.

Rutsindintwarane returned to Rwanda in 2006 and went to Mumeya "to see if my learning from the United States could make a difference."

It did.

Rutsindintwarane began by convening a village meeting and conducting a survey to assess the community's most critical needs. Building a hospital surfaced as the top priority. From there, Rutsindintwarane began training people to conduct their own research, organize their own labor and resources, interview critical Rwandan leaders, understand the importance of mutual accountability and more.

The people of Mumeya became empowered and things started to happen. The local government donated land. The people of Mumeya tended the land, collected stones and prepared cement to build the hospital's foundation. They planted trees. Mumeya's mayor sent an engineer to help with blueprints.

"That's how we got started," said Rutsindintwarane.

The ELCA provided $81,100 to support the building of the health care center.

"It is important to realize that, after returning from a refugee camp, all the people of Mumeya needed was to be empowered to address the needs of their own community," said the Rev. Benyam A. Kassahun, director for East and Southern Africa, ELCA Global Mission.

The people of Mumeya "needed some seed money to get a project like the clinic started, but most of the work was done through empowering women and men, who are tired of looking for handouts, determined to make a difference in their communities," said Kassahun.

"The relationships we have established with the Lutheran Church in Rwanda and the people of Mumeya have given the ELCA the opportunity to participate in the ministry of the church of Jesus Christ. We are grateful for such an opportunity and for the ministry Pastor Rutsindintwarane brings to us," said Kassahun.

Organizing is hard work

Grassroots-organizing "is exhausting work," said Rutsindintwarane. "It takes a lot of energy and it takes a new discipline of thinking," he said. "It also involves asking questions."

"Am I really doing what I believe? Am I really empowering both poor and rich people, or am I going to divide them? If you know that you are going to divide them, don't do it. If you know that you are doing it because you want power, don't do it. It's risky. You will clash with people, powerful people. But if you are humble, you will not clash with them," he said.

Rutsindintwarane dislikes the term "community organizing" to describe the efforts in Mumeya. He said for him it is more about renewing faith, "renewing my responsibility as a citizen, as a Christian and as a human being."

Information about the Lutheran Church in Rwanda is at http://www.ELCA.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Global-Mission/Where-We-Work/Africa/Rwanda.aspx, on the ELCA website.

Information about ELCA Global Mission is at http://www.ELCA.org/globalmission/, and ELCA World Hunger is at http://www.ELCA.org/hunger/, on the church's website.

ELCA News Service