“Peace, what does it mean for you?” asks Gaspard, compère of the game-exhibition, le Sentier de la paix [1]. For Kalisa, a young boy from the village of Nyanza, “Peace, is when I‘ve eaten, when I’m not ill, when I go to school”, but for Concessa, a schoolgirl from the town of Butare, “Peace is when we are safe”. There are many answers; they often depend on the environment the children come from. But whatever the answer is, this question simply opens up dialogue about a sensitive and difficult topic, the Rwandan’s genocide which occurred in 1994. More than a play activity, the exhibition is a real educational course intended to invite young people of between 10 and 20 years old to take part in the reflection.

Jacqueline Uwimana, the instigator of the project and president of the association Umuseke (“Dawn” in Rwandese), has chosen to educate children in peace by giving them values of equality and tolerance. Her objective is to make the children aware that it is up to each one of them to keep control of his or her free will in order to think for themselves. Through le Sentier de la paix initiative, she offers the children thirty-five panels based on eight themes: I can’t believe my eyes; Generalisations; Facts and opinions; Prejudice and suspicion; Rumour; Differences and likenesses; Discrimination; The scapegoat; Shall I go or not; One world for everybody. The idea is to make them react in line with certain logic, which is “discover, ask questions- question yourself, choose your answer”.

	Panel “do we see it the same way? – illusion of senses”: in a hill landscape, a young boy is wondering about the earth’s structure, “is it flat?”

In one of the panels of the series I can’t believe my eyes; we can see a picture of a flat earth. “For a long time, men believed that the earth was flat; nevertheless, science proved that it was round and who knows, perhaps in the future someone will demonstrate that it is oval”, the compère explains. The point of this demonstration is to show the participants that what we see is not always the truth and that we should be careful about evidence. For the exhibition to be well understood, the compères always try to make a parallel between the story of the country and the story of an individual. In this way, the preferred panels of the children are those of the series The scapegoat in which, they see themselves or recognise one of their friends. This subject enables the children to understand that we can be wrongly accused, but that it is not a reason to remain a victim.

At the beginning of the course, a logbook is given to each student so they can familiarise themselves with the process, and also share these reflections with their family. The results are amazing! One day, when leaving the office, members of the Umuseke association met the mother of a schoolboy who had attended the training course. They were really surprised when they saw that she was carrying her son’s logbook, and they were even more pleased when they learnt that she had brought it to show it to her friends and have a talk with them about it.

Today, le Sentier de la paix is a real success. Whereas at the beginning, parents and teachers criticised it and showed a widespread reluctance, the exhibition has become a recognised method and all the schools and youth centres are fighting to obtain it. Each year, more than 5000 young people discover it! Jacqueline is very proud of the work of her association, but today her dream is to go farther and to create a house of peace, such as the “rights drugstore” of her Congolese neighbours Heirs of Justice [2].

FDH

[1] Path of peace

[2] Read the article “In Congo (DRC), the constitutional state goes through all information means” in the newsletter Résonances africaines n° 8 of November 2006