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About FPH

About Our History and Mission

Friends Peace House, as known as URUGO RW’AMAHORO in Kinyarwanda, was created in December 2000 by the Evangelical Friends Church of Rwanda, a member of the Quaker branch of historically pacifist churches, as an agency to witness peace, reconciliation, and conflict resolution in Rwanda after the genocide and war of 1994.

We are a church-based organisation, but we work with all Rwandans without discrimination with regards to race, church membership, religion, faith, or gender. FPH has an autonomous board of directors and independent finances.

We have three principle objectives:

  • To build a durable peace in Rwanda
  • To restore human relations that were destroyed by the war and genocide of 1994 in order to promote peaceful coexistence; and
  • To reintegrate back into society people who have been touched by the tragic events of our country’s history.
Our vision is a unified Rwandan society which has a vibrant culture of peace, which respects the human rights of all its members, and which promotes human development.
Staff of FPH
We have seven general categories of activities:

Trainings and seminars about conflict resolution, human rights, trauma healing, culture of peace and non-violence, peace, and reconciliation;

  • Discussions and debates about key questions about peace and reconciliation in Rwanda;
  • Education and sensitization about crucial problems in Rwanda, like HIV-AIDS and poverty;
  • Providing aid to vulnerable groups like widows, street children, and recently-released prisoners;
  • Projects of convergence (education, development, and humanitarian aid) which enhance and reinforce our other activities;
  • Supporting grassroots associations which work for peace and reconciliation in Rwanda; and
  • Networking with other NGO’s to promote complementarity and collaboration in our work.

    • Since the start of our activities in 2001, Friends Peace House has grown significantly. In four years, more than 17,000 people have directly benefited from our programmes. Today, more than twenty workers support twenty programmes in four departments. We have worked in all twelve provinces of Rwanda.

    Our activities are wide and varied but focus primarily on building the capacities of leaders, the state, grassroots associations, civil society institutions, and the general population of Rwanda to respond to situations of conflict and violence in their homes and communities. In 2004, our Alternatives to Violence Project trained more than 1300 village-court gacaca judges, teaching them listening and conflict resolution skills. Women in Dialogue brings together women from across a difficult divide in Rwanda. Women survivors of the genocide and women whose husbands have been imprisoned for genocide-related crimes often do not trust each other; even though they may be neighbours, they have little contact between themselves. Women in Dialogue bridges this gap, as women on both sides of the divide are invited to come together through a series of seminars about trauma healing and conflict resolution. In our Women’s Rights programmes, we teach women to assert their rights, challenging traditions that deny them inheritance rights and force them to remarry after their husband dies. Our Youth Department currently supports twenty-five youth associations working for peace, health, and human rights in their local communities.

    Friends Peace House Office

    In the past few years we have also moved into our new office complex and training centre in Kagarama sector in Kigali city (pictured above).