Conversations that Save Lives: Justice, Connection, and Community at RBJ
Even after completing a successful first week at RBJ, I completely forgot the routine I had fallen into the previous week. Maybe it’s due to my housing shift from a host home to the Nyarutarama Sports Trust Club (the tennis club), but until I was pulled from my chair to attend the weekly Monday morning meeting, I hadn’t fully appreciated that a new week of work had begun.
We all walked upstairs to the big meeting room at the top of the building, settling into a fun and productive two hours discussing several major projects that are to begin soon. The most imminent is a revolutionary program in East Africa that involves providing computers to inmates in correctional facilities (Rwanda does not have ‘prisons’), giving them the opportunity to video call with their families. RBJ partnered with Rwandan technology firms and local programmers to create a completely new platform for the inmates to use. This platform is a completely Rwandan enterprise that will be piloted in one of Kigali’s correctional facilities beginning on Monday, June 16, 2025. While prisoners, or the families, will pay a small fee (about 1,000 RWF, equaling about $0.70) to speak with their family, it is a significantly cheaper option than having to commute to a correctional facility, even if only one person is commuting. If you attempt to transfer an entire family to the prison, it will probably cost 12,000RWF one way—a price many cannot afford.
Apart from providing a pathway for inmates to talk with their families and improve mental health, this program is part of a greater scheme to diminish the number of familial murders. I learned that in the correctional facilities, it is very common for rumors to go around when family, especially a wife or girlfriend, is unable to visit the facility. Oftentimes, people inform the inmates that their significant other is not coming because they have found another partner, leaving the inmate for other outside prospects. As these words disseminate, it is not uncommon that an inmate has their supposedly unfaithful partner murdered. Though these rumors are rarely true, deaths as a result of them are not unusual. This video call program is a major attempt to combat these occurrences. Those in correctional facilities will be able to talk with their significant others and families instead of having to forgo contact and live in the shadow of these rumors due to financial constraints. RBJ will closely monitor this program and, if successful, will implement it in as many correctional facilities as possible. Because the technology companies get profit from this program, it is quite self-sustaining, ensuring that financial backers will not be a constraint on the efficacy of this program.
Aside from that program, RBJ is working through about 400 cases in the legal clinic. About 200 of those cases require assistance in the early stages of the legal process, 150 cases require assistance in the later stages, and 50 of the cases are classified as complicated. RBJ is working to recruit more lawyers to help assist with this hefty caseload.
On Friday, I was invited to attend a meeting with the National Commission for Human Rights and numerous other human rights organizations. The NCHR partners with several organizations that it deems effective in aiding and enforcing human rights in Rwanda. As RBJ is one such organization, it was a wonderful experience to attend one of their big, semi-annual meetings to discuss programs and initiatives going forward. Though the meeting was almost entirely in Kinyarwanda (the Rwandan language), I was fortunate enough to sit next to three extremely kind commissioners from the NCHR, who gave me a lengthy rundown of the meeting while we enjoyed tea and juice. We had an amazing time, and I cherish the fact that I, as an intern, was able to take part in such an interesting meeting.
Other than work, beautiful life continues to surround me everywhere I go. Though my arms hurt quite a bit from a few lengthy workouts and tennis at the sports club, I cannot imagine anything to complain about.