MISSION STATEMENT
The primary mission of Stories For Hope is to promote non-violence, healing, and reconciliation, among youth whose families were ruptured in the 1994 genocide. By re-catalyzing intergenerational storytelling, and building capacity for the country to sustain this time-honored cultural practice, we hope to interrupt patterns of violence across many generations, and help re-build a more positive legacy for the newest generation of young leaders.
A second mission is to assist Rwanda to build a digital archive of oral histories which capture the essence of Rwandan values and culture, and the strengths and hopes of its people.
HISTORY
Founded in 2008 by Michigan psychologist Patricia Pasick, Ph.D., Stories For Hope is a non-profit organization, and an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with offices in Kigali, Rwanda.
In 2006, during a leadership training seminar for Cabinet and sub-Cabinet members led by Robert Pasick, Ph. D. from the William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan, an official asked, ‘How will I tell my own children about what happened to their grandparents, who died in the 1994 genocide? How will we help the next generation to understand what happened in Rwanda, and go forward with their lives peacefully, instead of repeating the past?’
One answer, after searching out experts and interviewing people in Rwanda, is an intergenerational story-telling project which facilitates, records, and archives audio and written transcripts of dialogues between youths and their chosen elders. Trained interviewers prepare and support story seekers and tellers, and help elicit strength-based narratives, in addition to family and cultural stories.
Initially seed-funded by the Ministry of Sports and Culture, the project isnow linked to the National Commission To Fight Against Genocide. Stories For Hope is lead by a team of US-based psychologists, social workers, and archivists. We are training groups of facilitators to bring the project to young people across Rwanda, many of them members of Never Again Rwanda, a large youth organization. Initial training and pilot interviews (60) were completed in 2009.
VISION
Our vision is a resurgence of intergenerational storytelling across the provinces, demonstrated through radio broadcasts, with storytelling recording stations made available in major centres accessible to rural populations, and a Web-based public-access archive of stories and dialogues.