LEAVING AHAZAZA - ONE YEAR AFTER Why writing this message ? * Because many people are still dealing with this subject - in Muhanga, in Europe and in the Rwandan justice system and administration. * Because statements and evidence are better than rumours. * Because of the unnecessary ending of a magnificent project (small budget, great output) which helped many people and created something special in Muhanga. * Because what happened is flagrant and partially criminal. Exactly one year ago, on 2 January 2014, we have been the last time in Ahazaza Centre - for the handover of the hall. 14 months before that hall was an empty room, with some few plastic chairs, without outside/inside painting, without budget, but especially: without concept, without a team, without music, without liveliness, without intense social benefit. 14 months it was managed by unpaid volunteers and went to be a special place known all over Rwanda ! Five volunteers (Stien, Robert, Martin, Louisa and me) left Ahazaza by the turn of the year (2013/2014), cause in the previous months it became clear that it was impossible to work with Raina Luff in a fruitful way. Johan Brusten, the deputy director, who obstructed us in many ways, confirmed the completeness of the inventory. Theogene, the schools accountant, checked the correctness of the cash box. Raina freaked out totally in the moment she became aware that we were absolutely determined to leave the place, that she would lose a lot by this and that we would stop her exploitation. She denounced Martin in the presence of several people to have stolen things from the centre - which were all his private property, so she committed: calumny. What happened after that ? - We did not receive one single statement of Raina or the Belgium organisation Friends of Ahazaza, which expressed any apology, understanding or respect. Instead: ignorance and defamation. First we reacted objectively on those insults and asked for reasonable evaluation of the situation - without success. Raina herself has not made any contact in 2014 with me or with Martin. Her son Richard Luff was spreading bold lies to a big circle of recipients via email. When he was proved wrong and things went embarrassing to him, he declared the conversation as finished. - After Raina had defamed Martin, both in Rwanda and Europe, Martin was insulted by several supporters of Raina and received hate letters (on and via facebook and via email). - Johan Brusten and Raina Luff went to the place of work of Louisa without any appointment/permission, hoping to bring her back to Ahazaza. As this failt, they defamed Louisa. To stop them from future harassment, it was necessary to write them police would be called next time they would act like this. They also wanted to regain former Ahazaza volunteer Stien and intimidated her. Luckily she found a better place in Rwanda to continue to help children. - As Martin critised Raina openly for missmanagement and systematic injustice, Raina took revenge in her favourite manner: she accused him at the police, using unjustified charges (theft/threats/breach of trust). At the police, she even said, she would fear that Martin would burn down the school! Martin was keeping all appointments at police and prosecution (mostly accompanied by me), justified himself and clarified the facts. - Later Raina was accused at the police by Martin, because she refused to payback a bigger amount of money that Martin had advanced for her business. - We informed the Rwanda Governance Board about the intrigues of Raina Luff - after we found out several other victims of this woman. RGB was very interested in our reports, as they already knew Raina... What we found out additionally: - The website of Raina Luffs Ahazaza-project (ahazaza.org) is full of lies and has few to do with the real local situation. Just some few examples: A large part of the promoted partners (ahazaza.org/en/our-partners) have either never been partners or finished cooperation with Raina for a good reason. The salary of her employees was - after all we noticed - unfair and the way of leadership was not reflecting humanistic ideals. The self-financing-fake: although all experts know that Ahazaza Centre and Ahazaza Farm will not be seriously profitable, Raina is using this promotion trick since years - to get more and more donations from abroad. This means cheating the supporters - in our opinion. - The intransparency of the Ahazaza organisation. We always got different statements concerning the management and organisational structure. On their website this is not even published (only the structure of the school itself). The own supervisory authority in Europe seems to include Philippe Olbrechts (Rainas friend for many years) and her own sons - but this is speculation due to the information policy of Ahazaza. - Peculiar is the extremely bad reputation of Raina after living 20 years in Rwanda - both in Rwandan institutions, European ngos in Kigali, judicial system, former employees and generally at her place of residence, Muhanga. - Many former victims (especially local people) have fear to speak out openly. Most of the locals dont have the financial means and self-confidence to compete with the experienced lawyer Raina. Just one example: the former Ahazaza teacher Agnes wrote to us about Raina: She tortured me mentally! - but Agnes will not defend herself...Even some Muzungus write us about her injustice, but they fear confrontation with Raina. Outlook: - We dont accept that Raina mutes her victims by threatening them with legal proceedings. - We dont accept that Rainas aid organisation continues to distinguish itself to be progressive and open minded, but fails to deal with constructive criticism, fails to admit mistakes, only rules by a system which is led by one powerful person which reminds us of colonialism. - We think that is a good idea to openly pronounce grievances. Especially because this great school, with a modern approach, exists ! - We want to encourage other volunteers - wheresoever they are active - to resist if they witness injustice. - The negative experiences with Raina and her organisation stressed us sometimes to our psychological limits. Still we dont give up !! We are thankful for the time in Ahazaza - especially for all the students, teachers, customers, neighbours, visitors, supporters and everyone in the Ahazaza Centre team. We learned a lot by the positive and negative experiences. We will go on to get involved in other social projects! https://facebook/ahazaza.centre?fref=ts
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 00:59:13 +0000
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