We are Christ-centered Friends who equip and encourage all people
to respond to God's love and transforming Spirit.

Peace Supper, April 8th at 6:00 pm
Speaker: Adrien Niyongabo from Burundi

Adrien Niyongabo is the Regional Coordinator for Trauma Healing and Nonviolence Training for the African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI) of the Friends' Peace Teams. Since 2003, Adrien has managed all aspects of this US-based non-governmental organization's programs in the Great Lakes region of Africa.

In August, 2003, with Peter Yeomans, Adrien evaluated the AVP-Rwanda program and produced "I Still Believe There is Good in All People:" An Evaluation of the Alternatives to Violence Project in Rwanda. Recently he has been introducing the three-day trauma healing workshops developed in Rwanda to trauma healing workers in Burundi and Uganda. He has led two workshops with adolescents fleeing the Lord's Resistance Army in Soroti, Uganda. In the spring of 2004, he will be a student at Pendle Hill outside Philadelphia, a Quaker retreat center.

In 2003, Adrien led AGLI's efforts to develop and implement the first Quaker trauma program in Rwanda, Trauma Healing Works, based in Kigali. His work there included: developing and providing comprehensive training on issues of psycho-social trauma to new trauma workers; supervising trainee-led community workshops on trauma healing; and leading trauma workshops with imprisoned perpetrators of the 1994 genocide

In 2000, Adrien co-founded AGLI's Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Services (THARS) in Bujumbura, Burundi, supporting the initiation and growth of this comprehensive trauma program. For the next three years, he provided individual counseling sessions for clients suffering from psycho-social trauma, conducted small-group workshops on issues of trauma and trained and supervised lay trauma workers, in addition to assisting with the everyday accounting, development and communications tasks of the organization. Adrien also represented THARS in weekly briefings at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Adrien is an Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) trainer and facilitator. As the national Vice Coordinator from 2002-2003, he oversaw the creation of nation-wide AVP program in Burundi. He has facilitated Basic and Advanced workshops in prisons and within communities and served as the point of contact between the AVP program and international visitors and the community.

Since 1996, Adrien has been an elected Elder of the Kamenge Friends Monthly Meeting in Bujumbura, Burundi. He is also head of the congregation's Rescue Committee, supervising an assistance program for Internally Displaced Persons and is the Christian Education Committee Leader, responsible for instruction in Quaker principles.

Adrien has studied trauma healing, reconciliation and peace project building at Quaker Peace Center in Cape Town, South Africa. He is fluent in Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, English, French, and Swahili.

Adrien can speak to the issues in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, particularly Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda. He specializes in trauma healing and reconciliation as these countries try to recover from previous cycles of violence. He can also speak to the Alternative to Violence Project (AVP) including the program with the gacaca judges in Rwanda.

Adrien lives in Bujumbura, Burundi and can be reached at - adniyo@hotmail.com.