Rigobert Minani-Bihuzo Receiving the SYLFF Prize

It is said that there are no extraordinary men ... just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with. There are people, however who make one wonder if it is not a combination of both, and Rigobert Minani-Bihuzo is such an example. He is a Jesuit priest who has been tirelessly working in war torn Congo to insure human rights, democratic elections, and the peace building process.

Father Rigobert was duly recognized for his selfless efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at the Tokyo Foundation's Tenth Anniversary Commemoration Symposium on 25 January. He was awarded the Second Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF) Prize at a ceremony prior to the symposium that took place at the Tokyo Foundation and Nippon Foundation's mutual Tokyo headquarters.

In a gesture typical of his unselfish devotion to the people of the Congo, upon receiving the prize and cash award that goes with it, he immediately announced that all the SYLFF prize money will be used to establish a scholarship fund for orphans who lost their parents in the relentless war that was waged throughout the Congo for 20 years until the signing of a peace treaty last week.

Father Rigobert is the founder of the NGO "Group Jeremie" that operates in the DRC and the African Great Lake Region. He received a SYLFF fellowship from 1995 to 1997 that enabled him to study at the Institute of Political Education "Pedro Arrupe" in Palermo, Italy where he received a DEA in Political Science. Afterward, he continued his work with the Christian-based NGO network RODHECIC (Network of Christian Organizations for Human Rights and Civic Education) which specializes in human rights, and coordinated the activities of CDCE (Framework for Dialogue of Civil Society for the Observation of the Election), an organization set up to organize the monitoring of the 2006 democratic election, the first in 40 years in the Congo. Rigobert's contributions, dedication and commitment to the successful outcome of the election earned him the Swedish NGO Diakonia's Changemaker Award.