{"id":3363,"date":"2014-04-26T15:27:03","date_gmt":"2014-04-26T15:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulkagame.com\/_test_&web\/?p=3363"},"modified":"2017-07-17T10:40:30","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T10:40:30","slug":"resilience-of-rwandans-kept-nation-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/?p=3363","title":{"rendered":"Resilience of Rwandans kept nation alive"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

San Francisco, 26 April 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Kagame addressed Saddleback Church in Orange County California during an event held to commemorate the 20th<\/sup> Anniversary of the Genocide Against the Tutsi.<\/p>\n

Speaking to thousands of Saddleback Church members, President Kagame described commemoration as a time to honor the lives lost and the resilience of survivors:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remember the more than a million lives we lost in the genocide. We honor the strength of survivors, as well as the resilience of Rwandans, that has kept our nation alive.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Introducing President Kagame, Pastor Rick Warren described his leadership as key to Rwanda\u2019s development:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never met a leader like Paul Kagame, he is an uncommon leader in an uncommon country. When the nation of Rwanda was destroyed to ashes, people said it can\u2019t be done. But it was done and Rwanda confounded its critics. Rwanda has chosen forgiveness. They are not denying the pain, they are willing to work together and move forward.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

President Kagame pointed to reconstruction as one of Rwanda\u2019s challenges over the last twenty years with the audience:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Genocide destroyed Rwanda’s social fabric which had been deliberately damaged over decades. Our work as a new nation in the last twenty years, has been about restoringsocial cohesion and the dignity of Rwandans.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Addressing the criticism Rwanda has received over the years, Pastor Rick Warren:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Rwanda continues to be blessed, the criticism will ramp up, but Sibomana. Those critics are not God and Rwanda does not need their approval. God chose a nation the world turned its back on during its darkest hour to give the world a new model.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Kagame attributed Rwanda\u2019s progress to a common quest for human dignity:<\/p>\n

\u201cHuman dignity and aspirations are the same for every human being. In Rwanda, we sank so low, we couldn\u2019t go any lower. Our only choice was to move up. We look back and say we deserve better and we can do better.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Saddleback Church was founded in 1980 by Pastor Rick Warren. The church currently counts nine campuses including location in Hong Kong, Philipines and Argentina. Pastor Rick Warren is also a member of the Presidential Advisory Council of President Kagame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Francisco, 26 April 2014 President Kagame addressed Saddleback Church in Orange County California during an event held to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Genocide Against the Tutsi. Speaking to thousands of Saddleback Church members, President Kagame described commemoration as a time to honor the lives lost and the resilience of survivors: \u201cWe remember the more than a million lives we lost in the genocide. We honor the strength of survivors, as well as the resilience of Rwandans, that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","post-has-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3363"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9710,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3363\/revisions\/9710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulkagame.rw\/2025\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}