The Mutual Blessings of Umuganda

by Guest Writer Lama Mugabo

In my late teens, I was awarded a unique opportunity to broaden my horizons. I was awarded the United Nations High Commission for Refugees Scholarship to attend the Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific (now known as Pearson College: UWC), outside Victoria, British Columbia. The college is named after the late Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968. Pearson brilliantly posited: “How can there be peace without people understanding each other, and how can this be if they don’t know each other?”

 Every year, a new cohort of one hundred students, ten percent of whom come from Canadian provinces and territories, arrives on campus to study for two years. The college creates an environment for all two hundred students to live, study, and thrive together. When I was there, we received the gift of rigorous academic training, and we were given plenty of opportunities to volunteer in the community.

 There, I discovered the value of giving back to the community and the joy of seeing the responses in the faces of those we served. Whether it was the children we worked with at the local YMCA on Wednesdays or the seniors with whom we interacted on Friday afternoons, they told us that we brought joy into their hearts. As for us, we gained considerable satisfaction from listening to their stories and learning from their experiences.

In 1994, my country, Rwanda, made breaking news. In only one hundred days, more than a million innocent lives were slaughtered for no other reason than they had been born Tutsis. I was devastated. While many Rwandan Canadians returned to the region to help rebuild the country after the genocide, I chose to stay behind and raise awareness about the causes of the genocide, the impact it had on my people, and what Rwandans were doing to heal their society.

 1994, Rwanda had hit rock bottom. Rwandans vowed that they would do whatever they could to rebuild their society by turning their adversity into opportunities. When I returned to Rwanda in 2008, I was pleasantly surprised to see the level of volunteerism and the energy Rwandans put into rebuilding their society.

 On the last Saturday of every month, Rwandans devote the morning to the traditional practice of Umuganda, ‘coming together in common purpose to achieve an outcome’. Village by village, neighbours spend time in cleaning their environment and talking about key development issues. Community development discussions range from the value of universal healthcare to community policing, family planning, the importance of girls’ education, and many other relevant topics. The government buys construction materials, individuals contribute labor, and the people build schools, roads, bridges, and health centres. Through Umuganda, residents are engaged and they rejoice when they see the results of their collective labor. The monthly community service nurtures social cohesion. Rwanda demonstrated that less-developed nations don’t need to wait for foreign aid to begin the task of fighting poverty and rebuilding community.

 As a member of the African diaspora in Vancouver, I continue to witness the remarkable devotion people show in volunteering to build back our local community, whether by coming to the Nora Hendrix Place Garden to grow vegetables and cook healthy meals, or by nourishing our souls by sharing stories.

I once asked one of our elder volunteers why she gave. She paused to think for a moment and then replied, “Over the years I learned to give, not because I have much, but because I know exactly how it feels to have nothing”.

 We give to bring joy, to express and build community, or because we know for ourselves what it is like to have extreme needs. We give because we are called to give, and often we are given back even more than we have given.

“There is the one who [generously] scatters [abroad], and yet increases all the more; And there is the one who withholds what is justly due, but it results only in want and poverty.” Proverbs 11:24 Amplified

Blessings,
Lama

Lama Mugabo,founder and  Ex Director of Building Bridges with Rwanda and a member  of the Hogan Alley Society.