We are a global network of communities of people, who wish to live and share peace from within each individual. Our method to peace is for each of us to be the peace.  Peace with everyone, everywhere, and every day. Our mission is to stop the intergenerational transmission of hate, violence, and trauma. We believe everyone holds the key to the peace within themselves; the peace we want the world to inherit for generations to come.

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Be The Peace was born out of our founder Hyppolite Ntigurirwa's search for peace.  Hyppolite survived the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the genocide in which more than one million people were killed in 100 days, in Rwanda. As a child, Hyppolite experienced the killings of his father, relatives, friends, neighbors, and many Rwandans.  He was only 7.  As a young adult, Hyppolite realized that the genocide was a result of a learned hatred ideology that was taught for generations before 1994.  He made the conscious choice to forgive the killers of his father and his relatives. 

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He established Be The Peace in 2016 with a vision of halting the intergenerational transmission of hate. He believes that peace is what you give and not what you ask others to give you. This is a pillar of the Be the Peace practice; we do not teach peace, for that cannot be taught.  We do, however, teach people to remove the blocks to the awareness of peace within.

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Be The Peace has been operating in Rwanda since 2016 and continues doing work with Rwandans who include genocide survivors, perpetrators, exile returnees, and their descendants. Through personal development, the arts, community work, and projects we invite all groups to work together to reconstruct trusting relationships.

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• Using the Arts, not just limited to theatre, poetry, and storytelling, our Rwandan members have been able to share their stories of survival, trauma, confession, forgiveness, and unity. 

• Community work has created collaborations of developing vegetable gardens, together and for each other, caring for and milking cows, a sign of friendship forever as well as a source of income and food. 

• Projects to support education and development in building houses for survivors; among many other activities that support a unified community.

 

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