Reflection Journeys to Rwanda
Rwanda cannot be understood from a distance. BBR Reflection Journeys invite participants to encounter Rwanda through its people, history, communities, landscapes, and ideas.
You come home changed.
The Journey
Rather than an itinerary, five movements — each journey passes through all of them.
- 1
Remember
Genocide Memorial and history.
- 2
Listen
Community leaders, scholars, elders and youth.
- 3
Experience
COVAGA, communities, institutions and homegrown solutions.
- 4
Discover
Kigali, Akagera, Lake Kivu, Musanze, culture and landscape.
- 5
Reflect
What does Rwanda's experience ask us to reconsider about our own communities?
Reflection Journey to Rwanda
The Reflection Tour documentary will sit here.
Coming soon.
In their words
Rather than asking the world to teach Africa, the symposium invited participants to consider what Africa, and Rwanda in particular, can teach the world about reconciliation, resilience, and rebuilding.
— From the RR25 Symposium, May 2026
Upcoming Journeys
Active journeys and the ones taking shape — the label says which is which.
Reflection Journey
The full immersion — visit BBR's community projects, meet change agents, and reflect on resilience, reconciliation, and rebuilding.
Youth Reflection Journey
The same journey, shaped for young people and their questions.
Executive Learning Exchange
For leaders and organizations — Rwanda's innovation ecosystem, from clean energy to drone logistics.
Why we lead these journeys
Africa's image has been unfairly tarnished, often portrayed through a colonized lens as a continent needing constant external assistance. BBR is shedding light on this misconception by showcasing pan-African transformation with a focus on Rwanda — and how Canadians can take back lessons learned from African countries.
Rwanda has been recognized as an African and global leader in sustainable development, agriculture, technology, gender equality, and education — "the little country with big changes." A beacon of hope for how a country can lift itself up after the tragic 1994 genocide and pave a way forward by re-imagining a new, vibrant, inclusive and equitable Rwanda.
What you'll experience
Participants travel through Rwanda's established development hotspots, meeting the change-makers who have significantly contributed to the nation's progress — from the Museum of Homegrown Solutions, where tradition and innovation drive sustainable development, to the community projects BBR has supported for nearly two decades: the COVAGA weavers, the Covaga Innovation Centre, and the Quinoa Demonstration Garden.
The tour creates opportunities for Canadians to invest funding and resources in community projects developed in Rwanda and to build reciprocal trade partnerships between the two countries.
The RR25 Legacy Project
Launched in 2019 by BBR, Hogan's Alley Society, and SFU's Institute for Black and African Diaspora Research and Engagement, the Remember Rwanda 25 (RR25) Legacy Project honors the resilience of the Rwandan people and sparks dialogue on sustainable development, justice, and reconciliation.
In summer 2022, Dr. June Francis and Lama Mugabo traveled to Kigali for CHOGM — a journey that inspired the documentary Reflection Tour to Rwanda. In May 2026, the project's international symposium at SFU asked what the world can learn from Rwanda's journey of reconciliation and nation-building.
The next journey: Learning Exchange 2027
Ten days. Five learning pillars. One remarkable story of transformation.