Regenerative Seed

As a devoted architect for 26 years, I have been working in the area highly devastated by the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi in Rwanda; Bisesero (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDjQ_ykmqpg&ab_channel=TheNewTimesRwanda). I have contributed to the rebirth, and healing of the souls of the survivors through promoting reconciliation in the area.

I designed and supervised three genocide memorials where more than 80,000 remains of victims were accorded decent burial. My journey to transform this region into an eco-destination to improve the livelihoods through ecotourism.

If selected as a winner, funds will be used to scale up my projects through: 

1. Community capacity building that focuses on:

• Strengthening agro-tourism: i.e: Beekeeping, Small-Scale Intensive Farming, etc.
• Conservation and environment protection awareness.
• Develop ecotourism skills and sanitation
• Rain water harvesting
• Initiate smart and connected green villages. 

2. Conservation in Bisesero of slopes and watersheds, and set up of endemic endogenous plant nurseries.

3. Promotion of Eco-tourism through: creation and animation of mountainous tourism circuits, rehabilitation of pathways throughout most attractive tourism places found in this area of Bisesero.

In September 1994, at 27 years old soldier in the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) that stopped the Genocide, I travelled back to my home village in Bisesero to find out whether my family had survived. Unfortunately, my entire family, and relatives had been totally wiped out with only decomposed bodies on the rolling hills. https://taarifa.rw/the-rwandan...

This shocking experience changed me for good.

In 1996, I retired from the army and devote my life to a noble cause. That is how and when I started a painful journey to craft, build memorials to host the remains of victims and exhibit their memory.

These memorials became powerful instruments in my personal and other survivors healing.

My vision is to see a total regeneration of a completely ruined area becoming an eco-destination for thousands of local and foreign visitors to experience a life changing phenomenon.

My purpose is to re-establish the environment, and alleviate poverty through creating eco-jobs for local communities. In 2021, I founded “REGENERATIVE SEED”, a foundation with the intent to achieve the following goals in 10 years:

- Creation of 5,000 Jobs through 100 cooperatives

- Plant 1 million trees

- Creation of 10 special eco-destinations

- Attract 100,000 visitors

In Bisesero, survivors and perpetrators who served their sentence cohabit on the same hills. Altogether, are subjected to the same basic needs and face similar problems for their survival.

This survival depends on unsustainable subsistence farming on tiny plots of land with income less than a dollar per day. As a result, this poverty is a source of malnutrition, especially among  children, unintended pregnancies among young girls, rural exodus of young people to urban areas seeking employment, and poor sanitation, but also, a serious source of post genocide violent conflicts.

This endemic poverty affects Bisesero, coupled with effects of the current Coronavirus global pandemic. 

REGENERATIVE SEED aims at transforming this vulnerable region into micro eco-destinations through developing unique concepts that exploits local resources and the rich culture in the area (Bisesero), which covers four sectors with targeted poor people to be elevated from this misery estimated at 6,500. 

Our work start with identification of tangible and intangible tourism potential; organize local communities in cooperatives, train and support them for their readiness to tap into available eco-tourism to generate revenue through eco-jobs.

Tourism sector in Rwanda is the second biggest contributor to national revenues. Nevertheless, it is exclusively based on visiting national parks. Yet, recently conference tourism in Kigali and other big cities has been introduced. 

For that reason, introducing eco-tourism in this remote rural area, seriously devastated, is something unusual in Rwanda.

Furthermore, organizing, training and supporting simple peasants until they become active agents and practitioners of eco-tourism, while elevating them from extreme poverty is an act of boldness very far from being expected in Rwanda. 

Additionally , Eco-tourism indeed catalyzes renaissance of people, because it brings out and values what is best intrinsically from the local communities, few to mention: their ancestral, local and indigenous knowledge like artisan which is the basis of interior decoration for our eco-lodges and other facilities, their cultural values reflected through folk dances and performances, narration of their history including past suffering and healing, and sharing their daily lifestyle with visitors.  

Moreover, ecotourism makes the former unhospitable, abandoned, and inaccessible area vibrant and full of life for human being, biodiversity, and ecosystems.

Therefore, my approach to use eco-tourism to bring  sustainable changes in Bisesero, is an innovative approach that solves more than one problem simultaneously. 

A development  community project which is in existence for 10 years,  pushed me and my family, in 2018 to leave the comfort in capital city to mingle in Bisesero community. This project has already impacted local communities throughout following steps:

• Step 1: Memorials design and construction significantly contributed to healing of souls, and regained positive meaning of life among citizens in Bisesero. Additionally, these memorials provided spaces for memories exhibition that made and still making young people to understand the “never again concept”. 
• Step 2: After realizing the readiness of local community in Bisesro to regain hope and strive for better future, I started and eco-tourism initiative with related facilities that gave the following eco-jobs: Young people got employed in eco-hospitality, traditional dances and conservation, old people generated income from history narration and artisans.
• Step 3: The success and effectiveness  of step 1 and 2, convinced me to turn  my personal endeavor into a collective one to complete what I started and expand it by forming “REGENERATIVE SEED “a foundation intends to play a more meaningful role in transforming the society."