Rachel Mahuku
Multiplying Solutions
Rachel Mahuku
WELLSPRING SENIOR PROGRAM MANAGER | ALI FACILITATOR
In 1994, approximately 1 million Rwandans were murdered in 100 days. The Genocide Against the Tutsi wasn’t a spontaneous tragedy – it was manufactured, in part, by the colonial education system.
With a passion for education, Rachel Mahuku returned to Rwanda. Her plan: empower a new generation of Rwandan educators.
ABCD was transformational for Rachel because it changed the way she saw people
and how she approached working in low-resource communities. Rachel says, “ABCD is relational; it’s about the community telling their stories and realizing what they have when they come together: their individual assets [and] those of the community. [By] connecting them, they can build a better community.” Ultimately, ABCD provided a framework that aligned with the historical practices of African communities. ABCD specifically connected with Rwanda’s traditional self-reliance philosophy.
Equipped with her knowledge of ABCD, Rachel began to multiply her impact. She helped families and schools create a shared vision and use the gifts of everyone to accomplish that vision. By adopting a mindset of abundance, Rachel began to see real transformation where she worked. leadership; she started to invite collaboration among her team; and she improved as a mentor and spiritual director. By building on her knowledge of ABCD, Rachel was able to better accomplish her mission: develop Christ-like leaders among teachers, parents, and children.
Rachel was invited to facilitate the ABCD course for her classmates. She not only provided in-depth knowledge of ABCD principles, but she offered real-life examples of how to practice ABCD in East African communities. Her classmates shared that it was one of the most influential elements of their entire ALI experience.
Rachel still serves as the ABCD facilitator for ALI, empowering other African leaders to engage their communities in the process of community development. Rachel uses the miracle of Jesus feeding the 4,000 in John 6:1-15 as an example of the potential of ABCD. Through compassion for a community, Jesus invites the crowd to contribute what they have and multiplies it to feed the whole community. She believes that as leaders and followers of Christ, we are invited into this same work of community engagement and multiplication.
ABCD offers a radical mindset shift to African leaders. Colonialism established a needs-based, scarcity mindset that caused communities to believe that solutions only come from outside the continent. This idea has been entrenched by a broken aid system.
In contrast, Rachel says, “we need to see that we are the ones to bring our own development.” By working with Wellspring and serving as an ALI facilitator, she is helping bring this vision to life. Rachel shares:
“We are capable and can develop our communities with the little that we have. If everyone brings the little they have and comes together, it becomes something big.
People used to ask for handouts, but now they have become sustainable. God has said this is the fruit of our hands, all of us together.”
