Marylea and I were blessed yesterday to be invited to a meeting to discuss organizing, coordinating, planning events for the weekend of March 16th.

March 16th will be five years since Rachel Corrie's passing and the group would like to keep an underlying theme of remembering Rachel for all the events that weekend.  The Choral Society already has their War and Hope concert planned  for Sunday, March 16th at 7 pm. We will approach that group and invite them to openly connect their event with the other events that will be happening and remembering Rachel. 

The Olympia Friends Monthly Meeting - Friends/Quakers - will be welcoming our friend Adrien Niyongabo back to Olympia on that weekend.  We have an event planned for Adrien at the Longhouse at TESC for Sunday.  

Adrien is a survivor of the unimaginable violence in Rwanda and Burundi in the 1990s and he currently works with the African Great Lakes Initiative on surviving trauma, alternatives to violence, reintegrating communities where tribal/ethnic violence has riven the communities. 

I recommend the film Hotel Rwanda if you want to know more about what happened in Rwanda and Burundi in the early 1990s and if you can stand the subject matter. I also recommend the Frontline film Ghosts of Rwanda if you want to see a less glamorized version of the story.   

Dear Friends:

I am writing to you on behalf of the Peace and Social Justice Committee of the Olympia Friends Meeting. Anne Phillips requested immediate assistance to a Kenyan mediation program earlier this month and our Committee approved an immediate donation of $100.00 to support the mediation training program. Kenya is in crisis today. A stable African democracy is in danger of descending into the hell of ethnic and tribal violence that shook Rwanda and Burundi in the 1990s. We can help our Kenyan friends prevent this situation from developing into tribal genocide through our support for the Kenyan mediation program.

The Peace and Social Justice Committee is planning to follow up this $100.00 commitment with a prayer for matching funds from friends at the Olympia Friends Monthly Meeting and from other groups and individuals.

I have included an email below that describes the Kenyan project that is requesting our support. Please feel free to contact Anne Phillips at mygratefulspirit@yahoo.com for information regarding how to take part. Anne is able to "bundle" our collective support and get it to our Kenyan friends quickly.