This April marks the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. Many will remember the horrific events of the genocide in 1994. But I hope people also take a moment to be in awe of the stories of healing, transformation, and reconciliation that Rwanda has since brought to the world.
It seems fitting that I make this metaphorical journey a reality. So this week, in honor of my 26th birthday (on April 26!) I will be walking 260 kilometers over 12 days on the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage that travelers have journeyed for over a thousand years to the burial site of St. James. It has many routes, mine will start in Porto, Portugal and end with all the other pilgrims in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
But my journey isn't just a metaphor. I want this to mean something - I want to see reconciliation made a reality for another family.
So I'll be raising funds to give one cow to a perpetrator and direct survivor of the genocide and their families. I've seen the difference 1 cow makes for families in Rwanda. Through a local organization called CARSA, this cow is shared by both families and becomes a source of economic stability and a shared goal that helps to repair their relationship. I've interviewed dozens of participants of this program and know that it truly transformative, not just for the survivor and perpetrator, but for their children to see their parents' relationship restored.
Please join me in this journey! Your support will go directly to Rwanda to purchase the cow, build the cowshed, and provide follow up support and training, a total of $800.
If you'd like to be part of this, you can give online at www.carsaministry.org and click the green donate button. Please add in the comment section "Kayla's cow" so it is designated accordingly.
Whether you give online, share this with friends, or just send me happy thoughts from afar, thank you! Your support and encouragement mean the world.
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| This is a photo I took in 2014 with the first survivor/perpetrator pair I interviewed in the Cow for Peace program. I didn't know at the time when I saw them holding hands that one man had killed the family member of the other. Yet since then, he has forgiven him and now they both proclaim they are 'free from the burdens of the past.' |
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| These are the children of a survivor and perpetrator pair who received a cow in the Cow for Peace program. Unfortunately, the relationship between their fathers is not good - reconciliation is so difficult. However, since sharing the cow, the children have started to play together and now they are friends, even if their parents cannot be. |
