“Amahoro” is the Kirundi word for peace. Founded in 1999 with a commitment to peace and reconciliation, its University of Ngozi (UNG) is uniquely situated to be a laboratory for peace-building and sustainable development and the Amahoro Project hopes to help lead the way. We recognize that economic development will suffer if violence continues and that peace will be a casualty if communities remain mired in poverty.
Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world, emerging from colonization and forty years of violence. Recent conflicts currently threaten the last eight years of stability but conditions in the region of Ngozi have remained peaceful for many years and that is one of the principle reasons why we are working there.
Those committed to this project believe that sustainable development must wed with restorative educational innovations to prepare new leaders to heal and foster civil society as basic infrastructure needs are addressed. In all our endeavors, we propose to use locally generated and regionally applicable case-based, problem-based, and project-based learning along with ideas and skills for peace building (i.e., improved communication, cooperation, conflict resolution and more) to transform surface or memorized learning into a greater emphasis on critical and creative thinking.
Over the course of this project, the UNG will be established as a viable center for research and development in sustainable peace and development. With this grant, those at the UNG can help Burundi forge (1) a recovery and rebirth of spirit, (2) reconcile wounds, differences, rivalries, prejudices, and hatreds, (3) resolve to understand the truth of the past, fix the present, and prepare for a better future; and (4) reinforce the resilience needed to rebuild an impoverished, post-colonial nation.
