Deep Gladness: Millennium Congregations and Millennium Villages

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Millennium Congregations and Millennium Villages

This eight-part film is one I made recently about the partnership between Millennium Congregations (MC) and the Millennium Villages Project (MVP).

A new American-based non-profit has emerged to promote an inter-faith response to extreme poverty, offering faith communities opportunities to support the incredible work of MVP and combat poverty in Mayange, one of Rwanda's poorest sectors. Interviews with staff in Rwanda and MC's founder, Jay Lawlor, help tell the story of this partnership in the context of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Within each MDG are proven interventions in agriculture, education, business development, infrastructure, and health.

This initiative offers the chance for unity among religions as we join in a common life of caring for the suffering and destitute. And we may just learn something about ourselves along the way.

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Helpful Acronyms and Definitions

MVP-Millennium Village Project
MC-Millennium Congregation
MCW-Miracle Corners of the World
RCW-Rwanda Community Works
Nyamata-The town in which I live, about 25 km from the capital city of Kigali.
Bugesera-The district in which I live and the site of the Millennium Village
Mayange-a sector in the Bugesera District. Also, a cluster of 5 villages or "cells" of 5,000 people each that make up the Millennium Village Project
umudugudu-a settlement of closely spaced dwellings which the government built to house returnees after the genocide. Also the smallest official unit of the Millennium Village.
Aegis Trust-An international organization to prevent genocide. Also responsible for the construction of Rwanda's central memorial in Kigali
Rwanda is divided into administrative territorial units as follows: There are four provinces plus the city of Kigali, and a total of 30 districts. Each district is divided into sectors, which are in turn subdivided into cells. The MVP Rwanda cluster is the sector of Mayange in the Bugesera district; each of the five cells in Mayange sector has a population of about 5,000 and is considered one “village” for the project. Cells are divided into umudugudus, or settlements, of 120 to 150 households, which are further subdivided into groups of about 20 households.