Peacemaker Institute's 2nd Bearing Witness Retreat in Rwanda
April 10-15, 2011
In Partnership with Memos: Learning From History and many other Rwandan NGO partners, the Peacemaker Institute is proud to announce the second Bearing Witness Retreat in Rwanda. In the tradition of the Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat co-founded by Roshi Bernie Glassman in 1996 and hosted annually in the years since by the Zen Peacemakers and the Peacemaker Institute, we will conduct a five-day retreat, bearing witness to the horror and tragic impact of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide as well as the current state of healing and reconciliation efforts in Rwanda. Grounded in our Three Peacemaker Tenets – not knowing, bearing witness and loving action – the retreat will offer Rwandans of all backgrounds and visitors from other countries new means for bearing witness to the realities and aftermath of genocide in ways that lead to healing, reconciliation, community-building and ultimately genocide and violence prevention.
Please join us in Rwanda, April 10-15, 2011.
Cost: TBA
Schedule:
Participants will arrive and check-in on Sunday, April 10th. The retreat will begin with an evening welcome and orientation on April 10th and end with a closing dinner and ceremonies on Friday April 16th. Departures will be on Saturday morning, April 16th. We encourage foreign participants to arrive several days early to recover from air travel and to acclimatize themselves to Rwanda, however the retreat fee only covers six nights lodging beginning April 10th and three meals a day, April 10-15. Participants will be responsible for their own dinner on April 10th and their own breakfast on April 16th. We also encourage participants to consider staying on in Rwanda or Africa after the retreat to take advantage of the opportunity visit additional memorial sites, other countries and the amazing mountain gorilla and other game preserves in this area of East Africa. We will be posting additional information on this web page about other travel opportunities in the region in the coming weeks.
Our hope is for this to become an annual retreat that will inspire many ongoing community building and violence prevention initiatives in Rwanda and the region. While the intention is for this retreat to become thoroughly Rwandan in character, international allies are critical to the future of Rwanda and the Lakes Region of East Africa. Join a select group of pioneering citizen diplomats on this historic first Bearing Witness Retreat in Rwanda, an experience that will surely be the transformational bearing witness journey of a lifetime.
Bearing Witness Retreat Cancellation Policy
All deposits and retreat fees are nonrefundable if registration is cancelled within four (4) weeks or less of the start date of the retreat. If registration is cancelled more than four (4) weeks but less than 90 days before the start date all paid retreat fees, minus the $500 required deposit will be refunded. If registration is cancelled more than 90 days prior to the start date of the retreat, your deposit and any additional retreat fees paid will be refunded minus a $50 cancellation fee to cover bank fees and other administrative costs.
Retreat Leaders
The Rwanda Bearing Witness Retreat will be led by Sensei Grover Gauntt and Acharya Fleet Maull, who between them have led over twenty bearing witness retreats at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświęcim, Poland, along with a group of Rwandan and foreign retreat facilitators who have been trained at the Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat.
Sensei Grover Genro Gauntt is a dharma successor of Roshi Bernie Glassman, a Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order and co-founder of the Hudson River Peacemaker Center. He helped staff the first Auschwitz-Birkenau Bearing Witness Retreat in 1996 has led the Auschwitz retreat numerous times. Sensei Gauntt leads meditation retreats, street retreats and bearing witness retreats throughout the world.
Acharya Fleet Maull is the founder of the Peacemaker Institute, Prison Dharma Network and National Prison Hospice Association. He is an Acharya (senior teacher) in the Shambhala Buddhist community and also a Sensei (senior teacher) in the Zen Peacemaker community and lineage of Roshi Bernie Glassman. Acharya Maull has led the Auschwitz Bearing Witness retreat numerous times and leads meditation retreats, leadership trainings, street retreats and bearing witness throughout the world.
Rwanda Bearing Witness Retreat Organizing Committee: Issa Higiro (Memos – Learning From History), Dora Urujeni (Memos – Learning From History), Michael Brady (Peacemaker Institute & Bead For Life), Kate Crisp (Peacemaker Institute), Grover Gauntt (Hudson River Peacemaker Center) Fleet Maull (Peacemaker Institute) and Cassidy Murphy (Peacemaker Institute).
Participating NGO’s: (Rwandan NGO’s participating in the Rwanda Bearing Witness Retreat)
Memos – Learning From History (Principal Organizing Partner)
AMI (Association Modeste et Innocent)
Centre des Blessures de la Vie
Evangelical Prison Fellowship of Rwanda
IBUKA (Survivors of Genocide Umbrella Organization)
Institute of National Museums of Rwanda
Institute of Research and Dialog for Peace (IRDP)
National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide
National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NUR
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The Peacemaker Institute is a division of Peacemaker Community USA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The Peacemaker Institute is located in Providence, Rhode Island.
