CGNK Co-sponsors Rwandan Tribute to Felicitas Niyitegeka

Father Jean d’Amour Dusengumuremy, a catholic priest in Byumba Diocese, Rwanda, and a member of CGNK’s Nonkilling Spiritual Traditions Research Committee, has devoted the past years researching the life of Felicitas Niyetegeka, a national heroine in Rwanda. During the 1994 Genocide, Sister Felicitas Niyetegeka was director of the Centre Saint-Pierre in Gisenyi, were she helped numerous Tutsi to escape by giving them shelter and helping to cross the border to Congo.

When Hutu militias finally arrived at Centre Saint-Pierre to kill  all who had sought refuge, she voluntarily joined them into death, albeit having the choice – as a Hutu and sister of an army colonel – to stay alive. Father d’Amour’s moving volume has already been published in English by Dignity Press, and French, but not in any of the local languages, which would allow further understanding of the powerful nonkilling message of Felicitas Niyetegeka.

The Center for Global Nonkilling has co-sponsored a new edition of the book in Kinyarwanda promoted by Father d’Amour. 2000 copies of the book will be distributed mainly in schools as a resource for nonkilling education and development, complementing the educational work of the “Glenn D. Paige” Nonkilling School established in Kazimia, South Kivu, DR Congo, by Mleci.