Solace Ministries
Solace Ministries is a Rwandan, non-profit, non-political, Christian organization established by Jean Gakwandi in December 1994 following the Genocide of 1994 based on the call “Comfort, Comfort my people (Isaiah 40:1). It is registered in Rwanda with the Ministerial Order no 015/11 of March 10, 2003.
The vision was initially to comfort widows and orphan survivors of the genocide against Tutsi people of 1994 and was later extended to other hurting people such as victims of HIV/AIDS.
The beneficiaries are organized into 60 communities and are an alternative family for many survivors with an estimate of 8,000 families.
The charity was registered in 2007 in UK as Solace Ministries UK by Dr. Aderemi Banjoko.
We have a holistic approach to meeting the needs of the widows and orphans, these include;
• Providing counselling for trauma healing
• Providing formal and informal education for orphans and needy children
• Providing shelter for the homeless
• Fighting loneliness with a community as an alternative family
• Integrated Community based development programs to fight against poverty
• Providing medical assistance for the sick and establishing a medical clinic
Hundreds of widows and orphans have been comforted and given a restored desire to live on through the work and projects of Solace Ministries. Hundreds of others have overcome feelings of hatred, anger and resentment. Most of the beneficiaries of Solace Ministries have lost their entire families but have found an alternative family through the large family at Solace Ministries.
Today, the survivors of the war and genocide are still struggling to re-establish their lives.
Our projects are aimed at improving the lives of widows and orphans and other hurting people in their communities.
Solace Ministries intends for its projects to be pragmatic, exciting, informing and a pre-cursor to similar projects being developed across Rwanda.