“As we pursue peace and welfare, we trust that [the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)] ... will place itself in the hands of humanity to be an agent of change and to give hope and a future promise to all whom it serves,” said Rwandan national president, Paul Kagame, speaking at the inaugural session of ADRA’s Leadership Council (ALC) held Feb. 12 to 15.

ADRA Rwanda has drawn significant national attention for its ambitious campaign there to launch projects focused on long-term sustainability in collaboration with some 450,000 community partners.

ADRA’s approach to development has long been partnership-based. Rather than funneling resources toward hit-and-run relief projects, ADRA focuses on empowering the local community. When it enters a region, ADRA gives community partners the tools and resources they need to improve their own living standards, providing economic independence and dignity.

Charles Sandefur, ADRA International president, illustrated the agency’s relief and development strategy in Rwanda during the ALC session. “One of ADRA’s projects works with local associations and cooperatives through a Swamp Reclamation program for the production of rice, impacting 33,000 people,” he said.

“We’re also fortifying those associations and cooperatives to increase self-sustainability. As a direct result, they’re better able to guide farmers, and they have taken on the development role themselves,” Sandefur added.

ADRA network leadership representatives from more than 33 countries attended ALC sessions with the intent to refine the agency’s global strategies for effective development and emergency response interventions while enhancing sound internal business management practices.

Opening ALC’s inaugural session, Pastor Lowell Cooper, one of the Seventh-day Adventist world church’s vice presidents and ADRA International board chair, said, “We pray that the nation of Rwanda will know peace in every city, village and home; that it will be a country under the rule of just laws; that every citizen will be accorded the dignity deserved by every human being.”

During the four-day Council, social issues captured center stage. “Two hundred million people in sub-Saharan Africa face hunger and malaria, and AIDS continues to claim lives. Any development agenda must be well coordinated to ensure that marginalized communities are part ... of the development process,” said President Kagame. “Through this approach, genuine partnership and ownership can be realized.”

Rwandan youth groups form a powerful partnership for change, and ADRA is working with 118,000 young people in primary and secondary schools in Rwanda’s western province on a health and HIV and AIDS awareness program. Through poetry, dance and other strategies focusing on AIDS prevention and lifestyle change, these young people empower others with knowledge.

“Being here adds force to what you are trying to do to help build a new nation, to concretize strategic plans and to share experiences of leadership,” President Kagame said. “We appreciate the role that ADRA continues to play in this region. We will be partners in the task. There is a long history between the Seventh-day Adventist church and ADRA through its 30 years of working in this country,” he continued.

ADRA is officially recognized in Rwanda as one of just two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that did not participate in that country’s 1994 genocide. Amid raging hostilities, ADRA was the last international NGO to leave the country.

In Kigali’s Genocide Memorial, ADRA receives an honorable mention for its efforts in collaboration with the International Red Cross to save the lives of nearly 400 orphans, internally displaced people, and people who survived injury and burial in mass graves.

While in Rwanda, ALC representatives paid tribute to the Genocide Memorial with a donation and a wreath. “The memorial’s clear message of hope and peace is synonymous with ADRA’s values and commitment to justice,” commented Sandefur.

For more information about ADRA and its international impact, visit www.adra.org.