Social Work in Rwanda

I had the opportunity to visit the National University of Rwanda; Faculty of Arts, Media and Social Sciences; Department of Social Work. The school is located in Butare, Rwanda which is the original capital city.

I met with the Dean of the Faculty, the Chair of the Social Work Department, several of the Lecturers (professors) and discussed social education and practice in Rwanda. Social Work education and profession are not on an even playing field. Social Work is new to Rwanda and most people as well as the government do not even know what it is. Currently most of the professors in the department are trained in sociology. However, several of them are working on their Masters in Social Work.

I had an opportunity to speak with the students in the Bachelors of Social Work program. There is not a Masters Program in the country but there are two other Bachelors programs at Catholic University of Rwanda and Institute Polytechnique Byumba.

I have offered to be a Guest Lecturer at the NUR Department of Social Work on a monthly. If things work out it will be my first community activity outside of work.  

Inter-Faith Iftar

On the evening of Thursday August 11, 2011 I had the opportunity to attend a dinner to celebrate Ramadan at an Inter-Faith Iftar at the residence of The Charge’ d’Affairs of the United States of America Anne S. Casper in cooperation with Sheikh Abdul Karim Gahutu, Mufti of Rwanda.

Ramadan is the Islamic Month of Fasting in which practicing Muslims fast during daylight hours to learn patience, spirituality, humility and submissiveness to Allah (God).

 An Iftar is the evening meal that breaks the fast right after sundown and is typically done as a community.

The evening began with Islamic prayer. During the dinner I was sat at the table with the Charge’, the Mufti, the Deputy Mufti and two gentlemen from the Rwanda Ministry of Infrastructure and the Energy Water and Sanitation Authority.

The Mufti is the leader of all Muslims in Rwanda and makes decisions regarding all issues of Islamic law. The Mufti only spoke Arabic and Kinyarwandan, so I was only able to communicate with him through the Charge’ (who spoke fluent Arabic and Kinyarwandan) and the Deputy Mufti. The Deputy Mufti is only 31 years. It is quite an accomplishment for such a young man. We discussed the history and discrimination of Muslims in Rwanda pre & post genocide. We also discussed some of the commonalities of discrimination within the African Diaspora (worldwide).

The other two gentlemen and I discussed our perspective jobs, places that we have lived, traveled and languages.

It was a great evening of learning and diversity.