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Chocolate diplomacy in Rwanda

Aim

Through the story of a piece of chocolate, youth will learn about the service and sacrifice of Canadian Veterans. They will also learn about the impact of war on civilians and the importance of protecting peace.

Objectives

Through this activity, youth will:

  • learn about the experiences of Canadian Veterans who served in the United Nations mission to Rwanda in 1994;
  • explore the complex situation of children recruited and used as soldiers  and the impact of war on civilians; and
  • reflect on the importance of protecting peace.

Target Audience

This activity is aimed at youth 12 to 18 years old.

Warning

This lesson plan includes details about traumatic events which may upset some students. We recommend you review the text and videos to gauge their use in your classroom. Modify as required. Refer to resources your school, province and territories offer to support difficult discussions.

Activity sequence

Choose from the activities below or complete all of them. Choose and modify lesson components to best fit student needs, curriculum requirements, and available time.

Chocolate bars

This lesson plan explores the story of a difficult encounter diffused with the help of a chocolate bar. You could enhance this activity by adding a sweet treat for sensory learners, but this is optional.

For a limited time and while supplies last, you can order Peace by Chocolate’s “Children Peace and Security” chocolate bars for free for your school. Sales of this special chocolate bar support the Dallaire Institute’s important efforts to protect children, and prevent the recruitment and use of children in violence.

Important: The lesson plan does not require chocolate. You can also use other brands of chocolate bars. If you order bars from Veterans Affairs Canada, please note chocolate bars contain milk and soy. They are not produced in a nut-free facility and may contain or have been exposed to almonds, peanuts, cashews, pistachios and hazelnuts.

When can I use this lesson plan?

Use this lesson plan as part of fall Veterans’ Week and Remembrance Day activities. You can also use it to keep the conversation about remembrance and recognition going year round.

For example, you could tie this activity to:

  • September 21 - International Day of Peace
  • November 20 - World Children's Day
  • February 12 - International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers
  • April 7 - International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda
  • May 29 - International Day of UN Peacekeepers
  • August 9 - National Peacekeepers' Day

Introductory discussion: What is peacekeeping?

Preparation

Review and adjust the amount of historical information to suit the needs and age of your students.

Become familiar with the subject matter using these resources:

Warning

The video contains graphic content that may offend some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised. We do not recommend sharing this video with young student audiences.

What is peacekeeping?

Lead a brief discussion about peacekeeping by asking questions like:

  • What does peacekeeping mean? 
  • What do you think the differences are between a peacekeeping mission and a war?
  • Can anyone think of places Canadians have served in peacekeeping missions?
  • Do you know any members of the Canadian Armed Forces who served in peacekeeping missions?

Explain to students:

  • Peacekeeping was “invented” after the First and Second World Wars. Tens of millions of people died during these conflicts. Afterwards, members of the international community increasingly looked for ways to prevent future conflicts.
  • Canada played a key role in creating the concept of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping. Since the late-1940s, many Canadian Armed Forces members have deployed on peacekeeping missions. They have participated in UN, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other multinational peace operations.
  • Peacekeepers are neutral international troops. Their homeland sends them to countries in turmoil to help reduce tensions and restore peace. They play vital roles including:
    • monitoring ceasefires
    • patrolling buffer zones
    • clearing landmines
    • investigating war crimes
    • helping refugees, and
    • providing humanitarian aid.
  • More than 125,000 CAF members have served in international peacekeeping efforts in dozens of countries. Approximately 130 of them have lost their lives. Many more of them have returned home with physical and psychological wounds.
  • Other Canadians have taken part in these missions. They include diplomats, civilians, and thousands of Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other police force members.

You could also show one of these videos about peacekeeping:

Making a connection to Rwanda

Show the class this map of Canadian peacekeeping missions around the world. Find Rwanda and show how far it is from your community. Ask your class if they know someone who is from Rwanda or from that area of Africa.

Research: Genocide in Rwanda

Explain that the class will learn about Canada’s peacekeeping mission to Rwanda. Underline that this is a very difficult but important chapter in Canada’s peacekeeping history.

A genocide happened in Rwanda in the early-1990s. Many hundreds of thousands of people were killed. The situation deeply affected many Canadian Armed Forces members who served there. Some of them, like General Roméo Dallaire, became important advocates for change. To understand why that change is so important, we must first understand what happened in Rwanda.

Have your class read the historical sheet The Canadian Armed Forces in Rwanda or explore one of the sources below. This will help them develop an understanding of what happened and the challenges Canadian Armed Forces members faced there.

Create a timeline

Ask your students what they learned in the article about what happened in Rwanda. You may want to highlight some of the key information below. On the board, create a timeline of events:

  • Rwanda is a small nation in central Africa. Two major ethnic groups exist: the Hutu and the Tutsi, with a third smaller group called the Twa. The Tutsis dominated Rwanda’s economy and politics for centuries due to the rule of the King. 
  • The Hutus, Tutsi and Twa lived together peacefully for many years in Rwanda. Almost all Rwandans spoke Kinyarwanda and there was much intermarriage, as well as the sharing of cultures and religion. Before the mid-20th century, disputes did not result in massacres or war.
  • During the European colonial era, the Germans and then the Belgians amplified the divide between the Hutus and the Tutsi.
  • In 1932, the Belgians formalized division between the ethnic groups, including the use of identity cards that showed ethnicity. Tutsis were favoured by the Belgians as they were fewer in number and the colonial government felt it made it easier to control the country.
  • Following the death of the Tutsi King Rudahigwa in 1959, there was an uprising of Hutus who killed thousands of Tutsis and violence spread.
  • Rwanda achieved independence from Belgium in 1961, but the unrest continued.
  • In the early-1990s, tensions flared into violence and a civil war began.
  • Beginning in 1993, United Nations (UN) countries, including Canada, took part in peacekeeping missions in Rwanda.
  • Even with the UN mission in Rwanda, the bad situation turned into a nightmare in April 1994. The Hutus began to massacre hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus. More than 800,000 people died in the genocide in Rwanda.
  • More than 600 Canadian soldiers served with UN peace missions to Rwanda from 1993 to 1996. However, the UN troops were too few in number during the genocide. They did not have the UN mandate to try stop the killing.
  • Canadian Armed Forces members were in the middle of a chaotic conflict zone. Some Veterans who served in Rwanda have suffered from a serious emotional disorder called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Alternative resources

For deeper learning, split your class into groups. Ask each group to consider a different source of information, such as:

Tip

There are many excellent videos available online to support auditory and visual learners. You could also challenge student groups to identify their own sources.

Discuss what each group learned to create a timeline.

General Dallaire - Chocolate diplomacy with children recruited and used as soldiers in Rwanda

Explain to students that Lieutenant-General (retired) Roméo Dallaire commanded the UN Peacekeeping mission in Rwanda. The mission, including Canadian forces, occurred during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Roméo Dallaire witnessed many difficult things during his time there. Today, we will learn about one particular incident that shaped his life after service in the military. 

In this video we will also hear from Tareq Hadhad. The Hadhad family fled war in Syria. They arrived in Canada as refugees. The family started a chocolate factory in Nova Scotia called Peace by Chocolate. Today, they are advocates for peace.

Watch: Video - A powerful piece of chocolate 4 minutes 43 seconds

Video discussion

Ask students about their impressions of the story told by Lieutenant-General Dallaire. Questions you might wish to explore include:

  • What do you think about adults recruiting children as soldiers?
  • Why do you think it is more difficult for a peacekeeper to deal with children recruited and used as soldiers than adults?
  • How did the chocolate bar help General Dallaire defuse this tense situation?

Explain to students that Lieutenant-General Dallaire continued to be a leader when he returned to Canada. He bravely talked in public about his struggle with PTSD. This helped other soldiers also dealing with PTSD understand that they are not alone. He served as a Senator in Canada’s Parliament. He also began the Dallaire Institute, which works hard to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers worldwide.

Art activity: Make your own chocolate bar wrapper

The class has now learned about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Students have discussed Lieutenant-General Dallaire’s close encounter with a child used as a soldier in Rwanda. They found out how a chocolate bar helped calm a tense situation.

Their mission now is to create a wrapper for a chocolate bar that promotes peace, remembrance and recognition. 

Before you begin, talk to students about the importance of remembrance and recognition.  Veterans worked hard to keep us and our world safe. They deserve our thanks. Research has also shown that recognition is important to Veteran mental health and well-being.

Symbols help us remember people we have lost and recognize the important work of those who have served in Canada’s military.

Invite students to use what they have learned to design a label for a chocolate bar. They will need to choose a name for their chocolate bar and illustrate the label with at least one symbol that relates to peace, remembrance or recognition. Labels can be drawn free-hand, created digitally or you can download our chocolate bar label template.

Project planning

Here are a few things students should think about as they work:

  • What colours do you associate with peace, remembrance or recognition? (i.e., white doves, green wreaths, red poppies, etc.)
  • What symbols could you use? (doves, poppies, peace signs, flags, an eagle feather, etc.)
  • What name will you choose for your chocolate bar? Don’t limit yourself to your native language, there are many words you could choose from other languages as well, including Canada’s Indigenous languages.
  • Who is the audience and how might that affect your design choices? (such as young people, youth, teenagers, adults.)
  • What medium will you use (pencil and paper, paint, digital artwork, etc.)

Presentations and display

Have students present their chocolate bar artwork to the class. They should explain each element they considered when designing it.

Display the artwork in your classroom. We encourage you to take photos and share them on social media with #CanadaRemembers.

“Wrap-up” discussion

The subject discussed in this lesson plan is very sensitive. Talking about children recruited and used as soldiers and genocide in Rwanda is difficult. You and your students may have found it emotionally challenging.

The lesson plan is designed to start a reflection about war, peace and the challenges of peacekeeping. It also encourages us to think about the rights children have to peace, safety, and security.

Make sure to end the activity in a positive, peaceful way. If your school allows, consider distributing chocolate to the class. Acknowledge that the events in Rwanda and General Dallaire’s story about the chocolate bar are difficult ones to learn. Canadians learned a lot about peacekeeping in Rwanda. This resulted in changes to how peacekeeping missions are structured and the support available to Veterans. 

The Dallaire Institute has and continues to push for change and the protection of children. And people impacted by war, like the Hadhad family, continue to share a strong message of peace.  Remind your class that peace is fragile and it starts with all of us.

Finally, highlight that Rwanda has worked hard to re-build. Despite all the hardships the country faced, a generation of young Rwandans have now grown up in peace. The country has invested in educating youth about the importance of peace, justice and reconciliation. Peace cannot be taken for granted, anywhere in the world. But today, Rwanda shows us that peace is possible.

End the lesson with the video Peace is possible produced by the Dallaire Institute (2 minutes 20 seconds).

These materials were developed with gracious support from the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace, and Security.

Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace, and Security
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