Man who refused to be defined by refugee status

Greg Bakunzi was born in Uganda in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement in Hoima District where refugees neither received good health services nor proper shelter. He would sit by United Nations tents almost all day and part of the night waiting for food ratios.
His parents had fled Rwanda to Uganda to escape the effects of the genocide. This was in the 1970s, during the era of president Idi Amin, whose regime has been described as one of terror. The education he ever got was studying under a tree where they were taught to read and write.

He never got a chance to go far in school because the UN, which supported education efforts, could no longer fully support the camp so Bakunzi found friends in a garage nearby where he started picking skills on how to fix cars.
Back home, in Rwanda, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) were combing the jungles and streets to return normalcy to the country that had been divided on ethnic lines between the dominant tribes of the Hutu and Tutsi, and spats that had degenerated into genocide.

Starting out
But like the adage goes, home is where the heart is. When peace was returning to Rwanda, so was Bakunzi, on a UN truck, to a home he had never known. He settled in Musanze, ready to start a new life.
While in Uganda, he had friends he admired for guiding tourists on excursions in Kisoro and beyond the border, into Rwanda. So when he was contemplating on what to do, experiences and lessons from Uganda helped him arrive at a decision.

Musanze is a town famous for the gorillas. He decided to go into tourism. It was a worthy risk though. Rwanda was not entirely peaceful and this naturally discouraged some tourists.
But what else could he have done? He was young and energetic and could scale the Musanze hills, so he started toying with the idea of community tourism where he worked with fellow community members to guide tourists to see gorillas and also experience their culture and lifestyle as they visited local communities and interacted with the locals.
He saved from every penny he earned. His plan was to start a tour and travel company. Uganda was still on his mind, not just for the childhood and teenage memories but for the friends he had made.

Later on, they came in handy when he had to borrow vehicles from them so he could transport tourists from Uganda to Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo.
“I had to be very creative in my approach. People were too afraid to visit Rwanda, but they wanted desperately to see the gorillas. So I borrowed local trucks and would drive 30 minutes to the Uganda border town of Kisoro. I would pick up tourists in Uganda, take them into Rwanda to see the gorillas, and return them by day’s end,” he recounts.

The target
A few tourists were generous and would encourage him with tips. His idea of selling community tourism was foreign but possible.
The local tourism industry had reservations of using community as a target for tourists. A researcher, Michael Grosspietsch, was willing to listen to him. He wanted locals living near Musanze, to showcase what they were about. In turn tourists would leave some dollars in the rural homes surrounding the prized mountain gorilla forests of Musanze which would in effect benefit communities. Grosspietsch understood what Bakunzi was trying to achieve.

In an interview carried by The New Times of Rwanda, Grosspietsch explains, “He realised that the people who were going to trek gorillas loved to stay another day or two, and just wanted to get involved with local people. This was the opportunity. This is what he saw in Uganda.
He could do the same here, and keep clients in Rwanda longer; give them a great experience while benefitting his own people.”
In turn, locals saw the tour guide’s idea. They played along, wove baskets to sell to the tourists. His interaction with the German opened his mind to more possibilities, one of which was immediate registration of a tours and travel company, which was realised in Amahoro Tours & Travel.

Spreading his wings
Firsts. Amahoro, translated as peace, was fitting for his first company name. Indeed, in 2003, Rwanda was on the brink of peace and positive actualisation. Dreams continue to unfold.
Outreach. The travel company gave birth to Amahoro Integrated Development Program (AIDP), a housing project which began in 2007 as a scheme to house a widow with two to three orphans, has successfully built nine housing units.
Nuggets of wisdom. His advice is that no matter what kind of business you are doing, the only thing you need to do is accept failure as everyone fails at something but focus on succeeding.

He adds, “I have had failures along the way. I face challenges even to this day. To many people, they might just give up and walk away. You have to stay strong, and believe.”
Red Rocks, one of his investments, is an intercultural centre where communities showcase all aspects of Rwandan culture and provide basic accommodation where tourists interact with the local communities enjoy their stay in Rwanda.
Family. When not working, Bakunzi spends time with family. “I like talking to my children, when they are at school, I visit them. Being a businessman is sometimes like being a politician, you don’t get time to take a break.