The youth are setting the reconciliation pace

As the saying goes, the youth are the future of the nation. A group of youth propelled a previously unknown organization into the national limelight when it decided to tackle a very delicate issue, national reconciliation. YouthConnektDialogue was created to sustain unity and reconciliation among Rwandans., a very daring feat in a country where a section of the population murdered, in cold blood, more than ten per cent of its citizens. Many sociologists have pointed out that it would be an uphill task to cleanse a contaminated older portion of the population, who grew up in the shadows of ethnic hatred, arguing that Rwanda’s salvation lay in its youth who are growing up in an environment of equal opportunity, justice and fairness. YouthConnektDialogue’s initiative has received government support under the Ndi Umunyarwanda (I am Rwandan) campaign. The latest to promote the idea was Unity Club, an organisation that brings together current and former senior officials and their spouses to advance peace, unity and reconciliation, open dialogue and truth. The Rwandan identity, one that supersedes artificial ethnic labeling is the only true guarantee of keeping the social fabrics intact and the Rwandan youth are aware of that, which is why they are setting the pace and do not shun confronting formerly uncomfortable subjects head on . The little idea that has germinated into a national programme in so short a span of time, gives encouragement that when good values are instilled among the youth at an early stage, they can spur a new generation that will safeguard this society from a reenactment of the 1994 horrors.