Thirty-two years ago, World Relief Rwanda Office started in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, helping displaced and traumatised families with shelter, non-food items and other basic relief. What began as an emergency response has since grown into a broad community development effort spanning health, livelihoods, agriculture, child protection and family strengthening.

Now, that journey is entering a new chapter. On Friday, August 14, the organisation unveiled its transition to Murika Development Partners, a locally led entity that will carry forward programmes built over more than three decades while placing their future firmly in Rwandan hands.

From relief to resilience: Three decades of community transformation at a glance

Its work gradually shifted from emergency response to self-reliance and church-led community transformation. Key milestones included Urwego Community Banking in 1997, HIV/AIDS programmes in 1998, maternal and child health initiatives in 2002, and child protection, nutrition and WASH programmes in 2006.

In 2010, it launched the Church Empowerment Strategy, bringing together initiatives such as Agriculture for Life, Savings for Life and Families for Life.

The organisation said more than 1.8 million households received behaviour-change messages, while over 36,700 people benefited from the Family for Life Programme and more than 54,000 children from the Child Development and Protection Programme.

About 180,000 women and young people benefited from empowerment programmes, more than 16,500 jobs were created, and about 26,000 people benefited from WASH projects. More than 343,000 people benefited from savings programmes, 63,700 from agriculture programmes and over 1,550 churches were empowered. Savings programmes generated more than $2.1 million.

‘The future of this work belongs’ to local communities

Myal Greene, President and CEO of World Relief Rwanda Office, said the programme had always been defined by the people implementing it on the ground.

Greene said the transition is part of World Relief’s Flourish Momentum initiative, through which four country offices are becoming independent, locally led Christian organisations.

"Four countries. Four new organisations. One conviction: that the future of this work belongs in the hands of the people who live in community with those we serve,” Greene stated.

He said the decision was driven by principle.

"On paper, the careful decision would have been to hold on. To keep the name, keep the control, keep the credit. That’s not what we did. Local church ownership is not a slogan. It is at the heart of our calling.”

Greene said local leadership would bring decisions closer to communities.

"Decisions get made closer to the people they affect. Solutions fit the place they come from.”

He added: "What we are doing today is not a change in who does this work. It is finally making the structure match the reality.”

A Rwandan model with global influence

Greene said some of World Relief’s influential approaches were developed in Rwanda and later adopted elsewhere.

In 2009, the organisation developed its first Church Empowerment Zone in Bugesera and Kicukiro, based on equipping trusted local churches to drive community transformation.

"Our job was not to build something alongside it. Our job was to equip, educate and train the church and send it out.”

The model has since been adopted in multiple countries, with more than 6,000 churches globally engaged.

"World Relief Rwanda has never been only a leader in Rwanda. It has been a leader globally. And the people who built that are the same people building Murika.”

World Relief Rwanda will support Murika financially during a three-year transition.

"The goal is not for Murika Development Partners to become a smaller version of what came before. The goal is for it to become something we could not have been: an organisation with its own donors, partnerships, and voice.”

"We are not letting you go. We are sending you,” he said.

Building Murika from World Relief’s legacy

Murika Development Partners formally started in January 2026 as a locally led organisation focused on resilient communities and sustainable development.

Its legal representative, Maurice Kwizera, said his connection to World Relief dates back to the post-Genocide response.

"I remember seeing a World Relief container in my village. Years later, I joined the organisation. Today, I am part of its continuation in a new form.”

Kwizera said Murika was built on years of experience and partnership.

"Murika was not born by accident. It is from long-time prayers and partnership.”

He said the organisation would focus on mindset change, wellbeing and self-reliance alongside material support.

"We don’t want to create dependency. We wish to support people to be self-reliant. We will be working with partners to co-create projects and programmes and ensure we work together to implement them" he said.

Murika will focus on agriculture, health, economic development and family strengthening under four principles: transformational impact, sustainability, accountability and excellence.

"The legacy we are talking about is transformed communities... tools developed over 32 years to empower churches and communities.”

Churches remain at the centre

Pastor Isaie Ndayizeye, legal representative of the Association of Pentecostal Churches in Rwanda (ADEPR), said the partnership had strengthened families and churches.

"The mission of World Relief Rwanda aligned with the mission of the Church, to bring holistic transformation,” he said.

Through more than 500 local churches, ADEPR has supported savings groups, leadership training and family strengthening.

Ndayizeye highlighted the Families for Life programme, which supports households affected by conflict and violence.

"We know when the family is destroyed, everything is destroyed.”

He said more than 3,000 families had been reached in the past year.

"As we celebrate 32 years, we see transformation, not just numbers.”

The impact was reflected in the story of Leoncie Mukamana and Chadrack Twihayimana, a couple from Musanze District.

Mukamana recalled years of domestic violence.

"We lived in domestic conflicts... I faced sexual and domestic violence.”

She said the programme helped the couple reconcile.

"Today, we have reconciled and we live as a peaceful couple.”

Twihayimana acknowledged his past mistakes.

"I spent family property worth Rwf25 million on luxuries.”

He said the programme transformed him.

"Today, I am a transformed man... I am already an ambassador for positive change.”

After 32 years, World Relief Rwanda Office’s transition marks a transfer of responsibility to Rwandan leadership, with Murika Development Partners taking forward its legacy of working with churches and communities.