From August 30 to September 11, 2025, a Protestant delegation from Rwanda visited partner organizations in Germany. The delegation consisted of leaders of the Protestant churches in Rwanda, including the Secretary General of the Protestant Council of Rwanda (CPR), Rev. Pastor Mutabazi Samuel, leaders of the Protestant University of Rwanda (PUR), Bishop Dr. Jered Kalimba and Prof. Dr. Olu O. Ojedokun, and leaders of the Presbyterian Church in Rwanda (EPR), Rev. Dr. Pascal Bataringaya and Rev. Pastor Julie Kandema.
The purpose of this particularly relevant visit was to thank our German Protestant partners for the successful actions carried out together in recent years, on the one hand, and to develop partnerships and explore opportunities for collaboration and exchange between our various organizations, on the other hand. During the visit, the delegation from the Protestant Churches and Organizations of Rwanda was delighted to meet and have fruitful exchanges with leaders from Bread for the World (BfW), the Evangelical Union in Mission (VEM), the Universities of Bambergand Bochum, the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), the Moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC), and the historic site of the Protestant Reformation in Wittenberg.
In particular, as part of its efforts to promote education, the Protestant delegation from Rwanda was warmly welcomed by Rev. Dr. Birgit Sendler-Koschel, Head of the Department of Education in the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), and her team. Discussions focused on promoting the activities of school foundations and the Global Protestant Education Network (GPEN) of Protestant schools. This visit was a great success and will enable the delegates from the Protestant Churches in Rwanda to strengthen professional relations with their partners, broaden their direct access to opportunities available between the various partners in Rwanda and Germany, and discover new practices that can improve the educational activities of their partner organizations.
During that visit, the Protestant delegation from Rwanda visited a Protestant kindergarten in Hanover that contributes to early childhood education. It was a very rich and varied experience, applicable to other educational contexts in Rwanda and elsewhere in the world.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Rev. Dr. Sendler-Koschel and her entire GPEN team at the EKD in Hanover for their hospitality and support, which greatly contributed to the success of our visit to Germany. We would also like to thank the leaders of our other German partners, who also contributed greatly to the success of our visit. Particularly we think Prof. Annette Scheunpflug from the University of Bamberg, who is also a member of the GPEN Administrative Council, Rev. Dr. John Wesley Kabango and Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Muhozi from VEM, Rev. Dr. Dagmar Pruin, Dr. Kathrin Strobel & Mrs. Dossing, Ms. Heide, Ms. Françoise Ndoume and her colleagues at BfW, and others. May God bless you all.
Kigali, on 06 November 2025
Rev. Pastor Samuel Mutabazi
General Secretary of the Protestant Council of Rwanda (CPR)