Rene Pacifique Amani (Amani)

Dallaire Scholar 2022-23

Rene Pacifique Amani, who goes by Amani, is our Dallaire scholar for the 2022-2023 academic year. He is the founder of and program coordinator for the nonprofit organization One Help One Direction Ihumure, which is committed to improving the lives of vulnerable children from hard places (homeless youth) in the Nyarugenge district, Rwezamenyo sector of Rwanda.

Amani is passionate about and has a long history of working with vulnerable children. He has always known this to be his calling and has worked with underprivileged children and youth through various organizations throughout his adult life. To anchor his passion, he sought out training and participated in the Rwanda peace education program organized by AEGIS Trust Rwanda whose mission is to bring positive change to the local community. From this support came One Help One Direction Ihumure.

One Help One Direction Ihumure’s vision is to create a peaceful world free of vulnerable children. One of Amani’s most successful programs, “Smile Sunday,” provides a safe place for children to heal and work with counselors as well as connect to their community and develop life skills through activity-based learning. The program helps reintegrate children into the community, pays school tuition, and increases participants’ sense of agency. Amani is committed to understanding the root causes of problems in his community and is constantly evolving the organization to better address them.

Amani is studying in Academic English Studies so that he has the English skills to expand his work to a national, and perhaps one day an international, level.

Amani’s Accomplishments 2022-2023

During his year at Lewis & Clark, Amani received two grants to support his work with One Help One Direction Ihumure: Projects for Peace, a grant supported by Shelby Davis, and the Nielson Social Change Innovation Grant, facilitated by the Center for Social Change and Community Involvement at Lewis & Clark. Amani participated in the Bates Center’s Winterim.