Video clips of a Rwandan soldier and police officer helping a Mozambican woman to pound dried corn in Cab Delgado’s Palma District Monday, August 9, went viral on social media, with the security personnel winning praise for their random act of kindness.

The two servicemen, who were armed as they enthusiastically lent a hand to the elderly woman, were part of Rwandan units heading to a nearby village where residents were gradually returning after Rwanda and Mozambican forces drove militants out of the area, when they found the elderly woman pounding corn.

This was a day after Rwanda and Mozambican armed forces captured the strategic port city of Mocimboa da Praia, which had been a stronghold of the terrorist group for a year.

The gesture by the two security personnel in the small village of Palma is steeped in the firm belief that security forces are there to protect and serve the people, and to join hands with the vulnerable and other ordinary citizens in improving their lives.

Historically, African military and police forces were detached from the people, many of them often violating the rights of citizens and victimising the same people they were meant to protect and serve.

For more than two decades or so, the Rwanda Defence Force and Rwanda National Police have sought to redefine the relationship between the country’s security forces and citizens, with both institutions actively taking part in national development efforts and local initiatives aimed at improving people’s lives.

They have been involved in voluntary activities such as constructing roads and bridges, housing for the vulnerable, and schools and health centres, and rendering free medical services, among others.

This constitutional role of security forces, in addition to safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country as well as keeping law and order, has given new meaning to military-civil relations, and helped transform perception of security forces.

From small random acts of kindness like helping a visually impaired person or school child to cross a busy street in Kigali to helping out a mother trying to feed her family in a Mozambican village to providing clean water in a village in Central African Republic, Rwandan security forces have shown that it is possible to look out for each other regardless of your profession or position in society.

This is a spirit and culture that should be embraced by particularly the youth, as well as other citizens.

We are stronger together and when we look out for one another – both during difficult and happy times. When you go out of your way to support the vulnerable – more so during these hard times of Covid-19 – you are not only putting a smile on someone’s face but you are helping make the world a better place.