Monthly Archives: June 2025

To help them cope with stress, from 12^th June 2025, Caritas Rwanda organized a 2-day wellness retreat for Headquarter team at Cenetra Hotel. This program featured self-awareness and peer reflections, group works and relaxant exercises among others, fostering well-being, connection and inner growth.

In his opening remarks, Father Oscar Kagimbura, the Secretary General of Caritas Rwanda, recalled that a healthy soul dwells in a healthy body and added that that is exactly why Caritas Rwanda organized this retreat. He encouraged everyone to fully participate and benefit from its positive impact.

“A healthy soul dwells in a healthy body, which is precisely why Caritas Rwanda organized this retreat”, said Father Oscar Kagimbura, the Secretary General of Caritas Rwanda in his opening remarks. He exhorted everyone to fully participate and benefit from its positive impact.

Dr. Uwihoreye Chaste, who facilitated the sessions, described mental health as comprising four stages of coping with stress: (i) striving, (ii) managing, (iii) struggling and (iv) crisis. According to Dr. Chaste, the last two stages require professional mental health support, but with proper care, recovery is often possible (noting that only about 3% of mental health disorders are untreatable).

The retreat didn’t only provide theories; it also emphasized on self-reflection techniques, peer reflexions, group activities and relaxant exercises.

Coping with stress is possible

After engaging in various exercises (self-reflection, partner share sessions and group activities), Dr. Chaste urged every retreat attendee to practice self-reflection at least twice a day, since it promotes good mental health. He also advised seeking help from a mental health professional before reaching the point of struggling or being in crisis.

While the team members were participating in relaxant activities, their joy was evident. The games focused on facing stress by making quick decisions, while others focused on teamwork or simply playing or dancing. The key lesson was that stress itself isn’t always harmful, the real problem comes when it takes a long time to be handled. To watch the video about relaxing exercises during the wellness retreat, click here.

To manage stress, whether work-related or family-related, it’s important to adopt the following six habits:

• Get eight hours of sleep every day;
• Stay physically active (through exercise or work);
• Be social (belong to a group, family);
• Practice self-reflection;
• Relaxing;
• Plan tasks within your capacity.

The retreat’s teaching methods also relayed on Kinyarwanda proverbs to help participants share and cope with stress without being overwhelmed. Examples included:

• Iyo utazi aho uva, ntumenya iyo ujya (If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going);
• Iyo utazi aho ujya, aho ugeze hose ugira ngo ni ho wajyaga (If you don’t know your destination, every place will look like your intended one);
• Agahinda gasangiwe, karatuba (Shared sorrow is lessened, decrease);
• Agahinda kadasangiwe karatumba (Unshared sorrow weighs heavy);
• Ahakomeye ni ho hava amakoma (White sorghum growths in hard soil);
• Agati gatwawe n’isuri, kajyana iteka n’agataka (A plant carried away by erosion, is always accompanied by a piece of soil);
• Iyo uciye ahakomeye, iyo hatagukomerekeje haragukomeza (What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger).

With aim of sharing its mission of assisting vulnerable people and promoting their integral human development, on 28^th May 2025, a team from Caritas Rwanda met with the major seminarians and leaders of the Saint Charles Borromée Nyakibanda Major Seminary.

In her presentation, Sister Gaudiose Nyiraneza, in charge of Animation and Social Actions within Caritas Rwanda’s Social Welfare Department gave an overview of Caritas Rwanda and its efforts to restore human dignity through its three departments: Social Welfare, Health, and Development.

Sister Gaudiose also urged them to get more involved by mentioning the Charity Month (August), when Christians and other good-willed people contribute to support the most vulnerable. She also mentioned the World Day of the Poor, where Caritas directors and other people share meals with the poor, reflecting Pope Francis’s desire when establishing this day: to restore the dignity of the poor.

It was a dynamic session, with post-presentation discussions focusing on helping the most vulnerable build resilience and the challenges associated with reduced external funding.

In his speech, Father Michel Nsengumuremyi, the spiritual leader at the Nyakibanda Major Seminary, praised Caritas Rwanda for organizing such an awareness at the Nyakibanda Major Seminary, to encourage the major seminarians to continue on the right path of assisting the most vulnerable.

The major seminarians of Nyakibanda are already involved in charitable activities

In collaboration with local authorities, the major seminarians carry out charitable works, as explained by Mpayimana Fabien, a brother (fratri) from the Gikongoro Diocese and coordinator of the Catholic Action activities at the Nyakibanda Major Seminary. As he said, they build shelters for vulnerable families through apostolic activities they conduct every Monday afternoon, raise funds to provide school materials to children from poor families, and collect donations to help people in prison.

According to Fabien Mpayimana, a brother (fratri) from the Gikongoro Diocese and coordinator of the Catholic Action activities at the Nyakibanda Major Seminary, the major seminarians collaborate with local authorities to perform charity works. As he stated, they collect money to provide vulnerable children with school materials, gather donations to assist those incarcerated, and construct shelters for families in need through apostolic activities they have every Monday afternoon.

Indeed, the major seminarians participate in community works to build houses for the most deprived; however, as they explain, due to a lack of sufficient resources, they cannot carry out finishing works, such as laying paving. “Our resources are limited. When we are called upon, we help with our own hands, but we have difficulty finding the necessary resources to build the house to the finishing stage. If we had the means to do the finishing, it would be better to offer them a well-finished house,” said Jean Damascène Uwiringiyimana, deacon of the diocese of Nyundo.

While the major seminarians do take part in community works to construct houses for the poorest, they note that they are unable to complete finishing touches like paving due to a lack of resources. “We have limited resources. When called upon, we support with our own hands, yet we struggle to locate the resources needed to complete the house. It would be preferable to provide them with a well-finished home if we had the resources to complete it,” stated Jean Damascène Uwiringiyimana, deacon of the Nyundo diocese.

Thus, the major seminarians invite other corporate bodies and individuals to join their cause of supporting the most vulnerable, as Jesus calls everyone to do: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in; I needed clothes and you clothed me; I was sick and you looked after me; I was in prison and you came to visit me” (Matthew 25:35-36).

Caritas Rwanda is currently conducting such campaigns in major and minor seminaries, as well as universities. Awareness-raising on embracing Caritas Spirit is also done through the Catholic Church media. Caritas Rwanda plans to expand these activities and raise awareness by calling everyone to help vulnerable people through various media, by visiting them at their workplaces and other places where many people gather.