Where We Work

Introduction
The Republic of Rwanda (red area) is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania.
 
Home to approximately 10.5 million people, Rwanda supports the densest population in continental Africa, most of who engage in subsistence agriculture. A verdant country of fertile and hilly terrain, the small republic bears the title "Land of a Thousand Hills"

The country has received considerable international attention due to its 1994 genocide, in which between 800,000 and one million people were killed. In 2008, Rwanda became the first country in history to elect a national legislature in which a majority of members were women. Three quarters of the population live below the international poverty line of USD $1.25 a day.

Historical Perspective
Although Rwanda has made significant progress from the devastated nation that emerged from the 1994 genocide, it still remains a severely under-developed, agrarian based economy with around 60% of the population living under the poverty line.

In order to fully understand the present situation, it is important to appreciate Rwanda in a historical perspective. Since the 11th century, Rwanda existed as a nation founded on a common history of its people, shared values, a single language and culture, extending well beyond the current borders of the country.

The unity of the Rwandan nation was also based on the clan groups and common rites with no discrimination based on ethnicity. The colonial power, based on an ideology of racial superiority and in collaboration with some religious organizations, exploited the subtle social differences and institutionalized discrimination. These actions distorted the harmonious social structure, creating a false ethnic division with disastrous consequences.

The recent history of Rwanda can be summarized by the following key events:

1. The 1884 Berlin Conference placed the Kingdom of Rwanda under German rule as part of Deutsch Ostafrica (German East Africa)
2. During the subsequent partition of Africa in 1910, a big part of Rwanda was annexed to neighboring countries. This caused the loss of 1/3 of the Rwandan internal market and a large part of its natural resources
3. Following the 1st World War and the defeat of Germany, Rwanda was given to Belgium as a trustee territory under the authority of the League of Nations
4. After the 2nd World War, the League of Nations became the United Nations and Rwanda became a UN Mandate trust territory, under Belgian administration, until 1962
5. During the colonial period, the Belgian administration applied contemporary Darwinian theories, thereby deeply dividing the people of Rwanda. This unfortunate development can be seen as laying the foundations for periodic mass killings even after independence was gained in 1962, culminating in the 1994 genocide.
6. The RPF put an end to the 1994 genocide and thereafter formed the Government of National Unity (GNU) and the Transitional National Assembly (TNA) in coalition with other political parties to define a new future for Rwanda through democratic institutions.

Geography
This small country, slightly smaller than the US state of Massachusetts or half the size of Scotland, is located near the center of Africa, a few degrees south of the Equator. It is separated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Lake Kivu and the Ruzizi River valley to the west; it is bounded on the north by Uganda, to the east by Tanzania, and to the south by Burundi. The capital, Kigali, is located in the center of the country.

Rwanda's countryside is covered by grasslands and small farms extending over rolling hills, with areas of rugged mountains that extend southeast from a chain of volcanoes in the northwest. The divide between the Congo and Nile drainage systems extends from north to south through western Rwanda at an average elevation of almost 9,000 feet (2,740 m). On the western slopes of this ridgeline, the land slopes abruptly toward Lake Kivu and the Ruzizi River valley, and constitutes part of the Great Rift Valley. The eastern slopes are more moderate, with rolling hills extending across central uplands at gradually reducing altitudes, to the plains, swamps, and lakes of the eastern border region. Therefore the country is also fondly known as "Land of a Thousand Hills" In 2006, a British-led exploration announced that they had located the longest headstream of the River Nile in Nyungwe Forest.

Demographics
Most Rwandans speak Kinyarwanda, one of the country's three official languages, and in market towns many people speak Swahili. Educated Rwandans speak French and about 5% (as of 2008) speak English. In 2008 the Rwandan government announced that English will become the co-official language of the nation, alongside Kinyarwanda and replacing French. They switched the language of education from French to English, and required government officials to learn it. This is partly an attempt to enable Rwanda to become a part of the global economic community—English and Swahili will be the principal languages of the East African Community,—but is also a result of a long-running feud between President Kagame and France over the apportioning of blame for the 1994 genocide. Rwanda has applied for membership to the English-speaking Commonwealth of Nations.
The ethnic breakdown of this nation of 10.5 million is roughly 84% Hutu, 15% Tutsi, and 1% Twa, with smaller minorities of South Asians, Arabs, French, British, and Belgians.

Most Rwandans are Christian, with significant changes since the genocide. A 2006 study reported that 56.5 percent of the population were Catholic (with a 6.9% increase since the 2001 survey), 37.1 percent Protestant (of which 11.1 Adventists, and 14,000 Jehovah's Witnesses), 4.6 percent Muslim, 1.7 claimed no religious beliefs, and 0.1 percent practiced traditional indigenous beliefs. Figures from 2001 survey were 49.6 % Catholic, 43.9 % Protestant, 4.6 % Muslim, 1.7 % no religious beliefs, and 0.1 % traditional indigenous beliefs. This represented a 19.9 percent increase in the number of Protestants, a 7.6 percent drop in the number of Catholics, and a 3.5 percent increase in the number of Muslims from the U.N. Population Fund survey in 1996. There has been a proliferation of small, usually Christian-linked schismatic religious groups since the 1994 Genocide. The figures for Protestants include the growing number of members of Jehovah's Witnesses and evangelical Protestant groups. There also is a small population of Baha'is and Jews. The Muslim community may have grown in part because Muslims are suggested to have saved the lives of many Tutsis from Hutu attacks. Some estimate the Muslim population of the country to be as high as 14%.

According to the World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Rwanda hosted 54,200 refugees and asylum seekers in 2007. Approximately 51,300 refugees and asylum seekers were from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 2,900 from Burundi.