CONSOLATE UWIHOREYE, 50, was all smiles when she stepped on the Rwandan soil after the vehicle transporting her–and two other returnees–crossed the Rwanda-Burundi border at Akanyaru, in Nyaruguru district. "I’m extremely happy to have returned home,” she said as she sat at Akanyaru waiting for her travel documents to be cleared by the migration office. "I spent the whole night imploring God to speed up time because I was eager to return to my motherland.”Uwihoreye’s return comes about a fortnight after she and 12 other Rwandan refugees living in Burundi visited the country as part of the ‘Come and See’ programme.The programme seeks to encourage refugees to witness firsthand the country’s socio-economic, political and security situation so they go back to sensitise their colleagues in exile to voluntarily repatriate. "What I saw overwhelmed me,” Uwihoreye said. "The country has gone a long way in development."I wish I would have returned the next day [after my visit], but the procedure obliged me to endure a few more days in exile.”Impact of the visitFrom socio-economic development to security achievements, Uwihoreye says after her recent visit to the country, she concluded that there were no other reasons she should remain in exile."The country is secure and residents have made significant achievements in improving their livelihoods,” she says."When I left the country, only a few residents in my village owned cows. But when I came on a guided tour of the country two weeks ago, I was welcomed with milk in my village. Almost all widows have cows they received from government and well-wishers. "So, what should I remain doing in Burundi?” she asked. Rumours Uwihoreye left her home village in Ngera sector, Nyaruguru district, in the early 2000s. She says at the time residents in the area "were severely hungry” that she chose to flee to Burundi. Since then, she has been living in Butare site in Rutana Province, a small refugees’ settlement housing about 250 refugees. If it was only about gaining life, Uwihoreye says she would have returned many years ago as she even says life as a refugee was like a nightmare. "Life was very difficult. We lived in deplorable conditions,” she says. She says when she returned to the camp following the ‘Come and See’ programme, she was bombarded with ‘rumours’ about the country’s situation. "People used to tell refugees that Rwandans were starving, that anyone who returns is immediately arrested or killed, that all men had been executed, that the failure to subscribe to the community health insurance leads to jail and other negative messages about the country,” Uwihoreye says, preferring not to mention those who spread the messages, although revealed many of them were Rwandan refugees in Tanzania. "But I saw the contrary when I arrived. So, even before the [Come and See] tour ended, I had resolved to come back.”

Work hard Uwihoreye says when she reached the camp and told colleagues that she was preparing to repatriate, they tried to dissuade her but she was adamant, having learnt the truth. She arrived at Akanyaru border on Wednesday afternoon and headed straight to her home village. She was accompanied by her daughter, Jacqueline Dusabimana–a mother of one–and their colleague, also a mother. They were received at the border by officials, who handed them resettlement packages. Uwihoreye believes others, too, will repatriate soon as she helped spread messages about the real situation within the country. And she says she will keep encouraging the refugees to repatriate. While welcoming the returnees, Brenda Chantal, the in-charge of repatriation in the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs, said the country is safe and has introduced several programmes to spur development. She urged them to embrace the programmes and work hard as a way of boosting their productivity and improving their living conditions. "I will farm to regain my life. I have the strength,” Uwihoreye declared.