HABIYAKARE

Before joining the Imenye Wigire group:
Before I joined the healing circle, I lived in constant fear. I was always suspicious and uneasy, unable to feel comfortable anywhere. I avoided gatherings and crowded places, and I had no self-confidence.

In 1994, I participated in the genocide against the Tutsi. Shortly afterward, I was imprisoned and spent 30 years in prison. When my sentence ended, I returned to society, but reintegration was extremely difficult. I constantly worried about how those I had wronged would see me and how others would judge me based on my past. I felt weak, overwhelmed, and unable to think clearly about my future.

Only a few days after I returned home, Community Healing Assistants visited me and invited me to join a healing circle. I agreed. When I first arrived, I found myself sitting together with people I had harmed. At the beginning, it was very difficult to speak, but as the weeks passed and discussions deepened, we gradually began to share openly, and my feelings started to change.

Around the fifth and sixth weeks, during sessions focused on building trust, I began to feel a real transformation within myself. I found the courage to ask forgiveness from those I had wronged. Through this process, I regained confidence and began to feel safe and at peace within myself.

Today, when I meet others who are in the same situation I once faced, I reach out to them. I share what I learned and guide them through the healing exercises. I do not keep the benefits of the healing circle to myself.