“My name is Sandrine IHIMBAZWE I am a girl guide from Rwanda Girl Guides Association and I live in the northern province of Rwanda. I joined the guiding movement at a young age which gave me the opportunity to participate in different activities and programs of guiding.

Girl guiding opened my eyes and change my perspective on how to see different things in our society. As we step in the Guiding week that leads to the World Thinking Day that has “Stand together for peace”.

We are in a special time when peace is most needed. The good thing is that we can all contribute to it. Here’s my short story about peace.

In the region of Burundi, Rwanda and Eastern Congo, which have been tired by conflict throughout the 1990’s, the Scout and Guide Organizations are a good example of cooperation through war and conflict. The organizations kept cooperating, making a space for young people to meet so as to find solutions of problems of peace in their communities. Being aware of lack of peace in Rwandan society, the Associations des Guides du Rwanda resolved to unite in order to give their contribution in regulating the local situation by creating peace clubs in high schools where the guiding movement exist.

As a high school student living in conflict zones, many of the classmate bring personal stories of lives affected by violence – many have lost family members, or know somebody who has. Peacekeeping is the fight against all forms of violence and the encouragement of others to be ambassadors of peace and to promote peace is to support equality because it is the first way to maintain peace in society.

In our peace clubs we focus on discussions that help young people to understand the problems in the society we live in and how to solve them. It made realize that I should take the lead in fighting violence and injustice. Through different campaigns we made it helped the Rwandan society to understand that equality is the foundation of peace.

So I call upon all my sisters in guiding to stand for peace even in difficult moments of Covid-19 pandemic and this should not a be reason for us to give up.

Edited by Nadia Lorraine Niyonsaba

Also available at WAGGGS website