Sunday 2 April, at Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences (PIASS), the community of 26 Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP) facilitators completed a 3days (31 March – 2 April, 2023) facilitators’ gathering organized by PIASS through its Center for Research and Action towards Sustainable Peace and Development (CRASPD).

In this gathering, participants refreshed their facilitation skills, shared experiences, and celebrating different achievements since the time they have completed their training of facilitators.  Participants celebrated the journey they have gone from the AVP Basic Level workshop to the Training of Facilitators (ToF), and they embraced the fact that they are active facilitators of this program in the region. They also celebrated the presence of our Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Penine Uwimbabazi who is herself an AVP facilitator & one of the pioneers started this program in PIASS.

Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP) was introduced in PIASS in 2013, with the purpose of equipping Peace Students with practical skills on how to deal with conflicts especially in finding other alternatives other than violence. It also had the objective of creating a network of young generation who were willing to build peace in the Great Lakes Region.

After discovering that this program is useful not only to peace students but also to the rest of the PIASS Community, it was expanded and become more inclusive, and CRASPD started to organize several workshops (basics to ToFs) and invite as many people as possible. So far, more than 200 PIASS students, lecturers and NGO staff from Rwanda and the region have benefited from this program. Among those trained people, 96 of them become facilitators and they are organizing AVP workshops in their respective communities.

                                                          Participants of the gathering sharing their experiences

This gathering was a special one, because all the participants are either former or current PIASS students. This made it more enjoyable as they were sharing different nice memories they had and still have in PIASS, both as students and as AVP community members.

On the last day of this gathering, it was a time to say goodbye to Ms. Anne Dietrich, the International Peace Advisor (IPA) who completed her contract with PIASS. Ms. Dietrich was an IPA sent by GIZ-Rwanda/Civil Peace Services, based in our institution from October 2016.  Since then, she was sustaining pillar of AVP & Non-Violent Communication (NVC) in PIASS. She was also involved in teaching, research as well as community outreach activities. In the period of more than 6 years of her service at PIASS, we become a leading institution in AVP & NVC in Rwanda, and we built a strong network of men & women who are committed to a positive change in the region. We are grateful for her contribution to our community & we wish her all the best in her next steps.

Our VC Prof. Dr. Penine Uwimbabazi presenting gift from PIASS AVP Community to Ms. Anne Dietrich

We are committed to train more students in this program, and we are ready to continue our contribution to the positive transformation through teaching, research and services to the community.

Editor: Serge MUVUNYI