Earlier this June, a team from INSPIRE!Africa traveled from Canada to Rwanda to visit Survivors Fund (SURF) and meet some of the survivors whose lives have been transformed through their generous support. INSPIRE!africa has long partnered with SURF, backing key initiatives such as our Legal and Counselling Helpline, TVET education, entrepreneurship training, and home renovations for survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

A particularly moving moment during the visit took place in Ngoma District, where the INSPIRE!africa team met Gilbert, a survivor who recently reclaimed his family’s land—property that had been taken from him after the genocide.

Gilbert was just seven years old when he lost his parents and two siblings. Fleeing across the Tanzanian border for safety, he returned in 1997 to find that his uncle had seized the family land. Still a child, Gilbert had no power to challenge this. Years later, after completing secondary school, he asked about the land title and learned that it had been illegally registered in his uncle’s name—and even partially sold.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Gilbert recalled. “When I asked him about it, he told me, ‘It’s my land now.’ I felt like I had lost my family all over again.”

Despite years of trying to reclaim the land, Gilbert’s efforts were fruitless—until he contacted the Legal and Counselling Helpline, supported by INSPIRE!africa. With the guidance of a dedicated lawyer, Gilbert was finally able to gather the required evidence and pursue justice.

And he won.

“For the first time in a long time, I feel like I have something that connects me to my parents again,” he said. “This land isn’t just property. It’s my home, my history.”

For the INSPIRE!africa team, Gilbert’s story was a powerful reminder that justice is not only found in courtrooms, but in the quiet triumphs of people like Gilbert—survivors rebuilding their lives, step by step, with the right support behind them.