Top cleric wins global award

The Secretary General of the Association of Baptist Churches in Rwanda (AEBR), Corneille Gato Munyamasoko, won the Congress Human Rights award by the Baptist World Alliance. On his arrival at Kigali International Airport on Monday, Munyamasoko said that he did not do the extraordinary to get the award but rather did what he believed was right. “I worked passionately for things that I believed were righteous, activities that would unite people,” he told a crowd of Christians who had gathered to meet him at the airport on his way from South Africa where the awarding ceremony took place. Among the activities for which he was credited is consolidating the AEBR’s participation in the fight against stigma associated with people with HIV and AIDS, where pastors from the church worked closely with caregivers to the sick to ensure those infected are not stigmatized against in their communities. “In most cases, some Christians are misled to condemn and judge those with HIV/AIDS as sinners simply because it is contracted through sin, but this is wrong,” he said. Other initiatives championed by Munyamasoko include the launch of peace and reconciliation clubs in each of the secondary schools operated by AEBR, have been instrumental in confronting mistrust and hate among teachers and students within these schools. He also helped found a Peace Camp Movement, which brings youth from various provinces in Rwanda, advancing conversations between survivors of genocide and those whose parents were imprisoned for acts of genocide. Munyamasoko has worked on mediation and peace-building initiatives on both sides of the border between the DRC and Rwanda. He extended his peace-building capabilities to Kenya when he worked with Kenyan clerics after the 2007 post election violence and in 2013; he worked with churches to ensure clerics serve as agents of peace ahead of for the most recent Kenyan Presidential Elections. The Congress Human Rights Award is presented at each Baptist World Congress, normally held every five years. The first Congress Human Rights Award was made in 1995 to former President of the United States Jimmy Carter.

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Top cleric wins global award