Shyogwe training

The example of Rwanda – reaching over 1,300 local leaders at £17 ($27) a head

The work in Rwanda is a good example of the way in which BUILD is growing and the way in which additional financial support can have an impact.

In the south of Rwanda four dioceses work together through the Rural Inter-diocesan Development Service (RDIS), which ties together evangelism, church leadership development and other aspects of integral mission.

BUILD is a central part of their strategy and a recent proposal requested £22,123 ($35,000) per annum. If this seems high it is for work that aims to include a minimum of 1,300 participants, who are local level pastors and leaders such as catechists, evangelists and church planters (and they are already on track to exceed those targets).

In other words £17 ($27) delivers a module of essential church leadership training to a local leader in the encouraging context of local workshops, peer support and follow-up. And not only is the cost of coordination included, but also that of translation work on the next module of training (they have translated Module One into Kinyarwanda already) and the equipping and empowering of a further 324 individuals in their ministries of coordinating gospel work and training others, as they are involved in the programme.

BUILD believes in integrated training strategies, where colleges play a key role, but it is worth asking this question: How much traditional, residential training, done out of context would be achieved for £17 ($27)?

We are not against residential training but those efforts alone are not enough and need to be integrated with BUILD type approaches, not least to maximise the impact of the high level of funding that is focussed on individuals in such training.