Bridge2Rwanda began with two individuals who shared a common vision – Dale Dawson and Bishop John Rucyahana.
Dale Dawson’s Story
Dale Dawson is an investment banker and entrepreneur. In 2002, he was 50 and doing exactly what he had always wanted to do — looking for investment opportunities and leading the investment banking practice at Stephens Inc, a private firm owned by one of the wealthiest, most entrepreneurial families in America. Then he met Bishop John Rucyahana who introduced him to the kind of challenges he had never before imagined. A year later, Dale quit his position at Stephens to begin building schools and businesses in Rwanda.
Today, Dale serves on President Paul Kagame’s Presidential Advisory Council and is Founder, Chair & CEO of Bridge2Rwanda. Dale serves on the board of Urwego Opportunity Bank of Rwanda; OneHundredX (formerly Leadership Network), founded by Bob Buford, author of Halftime; EduLeap founded by Chris Crane; and the Opportunity International President’s Council.
During his career, Dale has served as an Executive Vice President at Stephens Inc; a Partner and National Director at KPMG, the global accounting firm; and Chair & CEO of TruckPro, the country’s largest independent distributor of commercial truck parts, which he sold to AutoZone. He and his wife, Judi, are University of Texas graduates and live in Little Rock, Arkansas. Their children, Katherine and Jack, are both college students.
Bishop John’s Story
Bishop John Rucyahana is one of Rwanda’s most effective leaders – an evangelist, spiritual leader and social entrepreneur – building schools, hospitals, businesses, community centers and churches. He serves on President Kagame’s Presidential Advisory Council and is the author of The Bishop of Rwanda: Finding Forgiveness Amidst a Pile of Bones. He speaks several languages and earned his Masters in Divinity degree in the U.S. He travels frequently to North America, Europe and Australia as an ambassador for Jesus and Rwanda. Christianity Today magazine described Bishop John as Rwanda’s Christian leader with the biggest network of friends in America.
Bishop John is blessed with a clear and powerful vision of what can be. With love, humility and determination, he brings together others to make such visions a reality.
- Founder and Chair of the Sonrise School, built in partnership with Mustard Seed Project, Bridge2Rwanda, Rwanda Leadership Foundation and World Help. Founder and Chair of Muhabura University. Also responsible for the construction and operations of numerous primary and secondary schools.
- Chair of Shyira Hospital and responsible for the construction and operations of numerous community health centers.
- Founder and Chair of Ishema Hotel and numerous business activities in the Shyira Diocese of the Anglican Church of Rwanda. Serves on the board of Urwego Opportunity Bank of Rwanda.
- Chair of Prison Fellowship Rwanda and serves on the global board of Prison Fellowship International. Recipient of Prison Fellowship International’s 2009 Wilberforce Award for his work bringing reconciliation among the victims and perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide.
- Chair of Hope Rwanda –100 Days of Hope in partnership with Hillsong Church of Australia to bring more than 300 churches and ministries from more than 10 countries to Rwanda to pray and serve.
- Driving force behind the decisions by Opportunity International, Heifer International, Kids Across America and many others to launch operations in Rwanda. Partnered with many other global organizations including World Vision, Compassion International and World Relief. Chair of the 2009 Andrew Palau Youth Crusade.
- First Anglican bishop from Africa to have a parish in America. Instrumental in founding the Anglican Mission in America which has planted over 150 new churches under the authority and as a missionary outreach to North America by the Anglican Province of Rwanda.
Born in Rwanda in 1945, Bishop John fled his nation as a youth and lived as a refugee in Uganda for 35 years. Since 1997, he has served as the Anglican bishop of the Shyira Diocese of northwest Rwanda. He and his wife, Harriet, live in Musanze, Rwanda. They have nine adult children, four of whom were adopted, and four grandchildren. Musanze is the beautiful home of the Virunga Mountains and the mountain gorillas made famous by Dian Fossey’s Gorillas in the Mist. It is also one of the poorest and most densely populated regions of Africa. It was the most violent and devastated area of Rwanda following the 1994 genocide.
