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Visit to APRECOM March 2016

by Susie Howe

www.bethanychildrenstrust.org.uk

Charity Registration Number 1073817

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IntroductionOne of the best aspects of my role is to spend time with the amazing people and projects that BCT partners with. These are precious times of mutual teaching, benefit and encouragement and dreaming together about how we can develop and grow the work we are doing, so that even more children and communities are able to experience the life, healing and hope of Jesus Christ. This was my purpose in visiting APRECOM.

BCT has partnered with APRECOM since 2002. APRECOM is a project of Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Since its inception in 1996, APRECOM’s work has been focussed in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city. Support groups for people living with HIV disease were instigated across the city; individualised support in the form of home and hospital visits and counselling sessions were given; support groups for children living with or affected by HIV were formed and individual counselling given; parents were empowered to care for their children through training in Good Parenting and the formation of income generation projects. BCT supported all these activities. The work in Kigali matured and is now virtually self-sustaining. Support group leaders have been trained by APRECOM to give group members the support that APRECOM staff used to give. Team members still go to visit those who are sick in their homes or hospital, but these visits are needed less and less because of freely available medications and the increased sense of hope, purpose and wellbeing that has resulted from APRECOM’s Christ-centred, gospel-based care.

A couple of years ago, with the work in Kigali running well, BCT encouraged APRECOM to turn its attention to two rural areas - Bugesera and Bukora. BCT now mainly supports APRECOM’s work in these two new areas. We are and continue to be the main source of APRECOM’s financial support and of the advice, guidance, training and equipping they need in order to develop.

Meet the APRECOM Team:

Joanna Higigiri – Joanna runs the Queen’s club and does APRECOM’s administration. She also helps to run APRECOM’s work amongst churches. Despite the fact that she is American and has a limited grasp of Kinyarwandan at present, Odeth says she is a real boon to the team and ‘fits extremely well into the local culture’. Joanna was on her honeymoon during my visit.

Donatien Birasa – Donatien is the youngest team member and comes from Burundi. He and his family have been very affected by the conflict there, having lost five family members last year. He runs the Inshuti Nziza clubs in Bukora and Kigali and assists at the support group and Queens Club in Bukora. He also helps with church trainings.

David Nestory – David has been working for YWAM since 2008. He was initially in Tanzania where he was running a large sewing school, but felt called to work with YWAM in Rwanda and started developing the sewing project in Bukora in June 2015.

Odeth Abakunda – Odeth is APRECOM’s co-ordinator and is also on the YWAM leadership team. She is currently doing an administration degree in the evenings to improve her skills in this area. Odeth shares the administration of APRECOM with Joanna; she keeps the accounts, tries to mobilise funds

APRECOM’s Vision To see HIV-affected adults and children in Rwanda becoming self-reliant, mutually supportive and filled with hope, so that they can fulfil God’s calling on their lives. To raise awareness and equip churches and communities, so that they are accepting and supportive of people living with HIV/AIDS.

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and manages and supports the team. She also helps out with training churches and the good parenting training. Odeth is mum to three small children.

Emma Kumukera Mwumvaneza – Emma keeps the accounts, runs the Inshuti Nziza clubs in Kigali and carries out home visits to people who are sick.

As well as spending time teaching and training the APRECOM team about different aspects of project management and child participation, my visit to APRECOM was a chance to visit the work going on in Bugesera and Bukora. I helped to run training workshops and children’s and teens clubs, and visited vulnerable families. Let me share some of the highlights with you!

Training of churches in Ruhuha, BugeseraIn 2015, APRECOM began working with around 120 church leaders in Ruhuha, Bugesera, because the area was severely affected by the genocide, the impact of which continues to cast long shadows over the local community today, affecting relationships and engendering mistrust. A two-hour drive from Kigali, Bugesera has a high incidence of HIV and AIDS, in part because many women were raped in the genocide. There is still much collective and individual pain because of this. APRECOM’s vision is for the Church in Bugesera to be an agent of healing and restoration. Therefore, APRECOM initially focussed on encouraging the pastors to be agents of reconciliation and forgiveness in their communities, and to model unity.

Since then, APRECOM has also taught HIV awareness, care and prevention and this has had an impact. Before, HIV was a taboo subject, but now church leaders and members talk about it freely. Churches are encouraging those in their communities to be tested, including church members. As a result, in the past year, 50 people were found to be HIV positive. The churches are now supporting them and encouraging them to take the anti-retroviral therapy which is freely available.

Churches are also helping to pay for the medical insurance of those who are poor, so that they can get access to medical care. Church leaders and members visit the sick and speak out against the rejection of those who are HIV positive, so stigma has greatly decreased.

Recently, APRECOM asked local pastors and their wives to walk around their communities to identify vulnerable orphans. As a result, twelve children are now being fostered by some of the pastors and their wives.

During my visit we ran a one-day workshop on Child Participation – a totally alien concept in a society that expects children to be seen and not heard. Children are rarely listened to, are not expected to have a worthwhile opinion and are generally looked down upon. It became clear during group discussions that children are even kept to the sidelines in churches in Ruhuha. ‘We have failed badly,’ said one pastor. ‘We don’t even have a Sunday School.’ This was the case for at least three churches represented in the seminar.

At the beginning of the seminar, many of the pastors held the view that children’s ministry is secondary to that of adults, and were not ashamed to say so. Most of them felt that children should not meet with adults and that they had no real role to play in the church.

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However, by the end of the day, it was gratifying that the hearts and views of many had changed and there appeared to be genuine contrition. ‘Really,’ exclaimed Pastor Fidele, ‘this has been so important for all of us. We have made a grave mistake and now is the time to rectify it. I am going to look into starting a children’s ministry within our church. I will even form a children’s committee so that we can learn from the children and they can express their views about church life.’

Visit to BukoraBukora is situated in eastern Rwanda, a four-hour drive from Kigali and very close to the border with Tanzania. During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, hundreds of thousands of Rwandans fled across the border and made their home in Tanzania. Many raised cattle in the bush. Since 1996, Tanzania has been trying to get Rwandan refugees repatriated back to Rwanda, but thousands of Rwandans fled from camps in Tanzania, desperate not to be sent back to Rwanda for fear of arrests or reprisals for the part they had played in the genocide. In 2013, Tanzania forcibly deported thousands of Rwandans at short notice. Bukora was one of the camps set up to accommodate these displaced people who arrived with nothing and were forced to live on handouts.

Since then, the Rwandan government has built houses for the displaced people, but according to Odeth, their resettlement

has been fraught, with local Rwandans mistrusting them and the deportees struggling to find their place and a sense of belonging. In a physical sense, many of those deported have been able to carve out some sort of life for themselves in this incredibly beautiful rural area. But there is a severe poverty of relationship and tensions still simmer under the surface. People are still being deported back to Rwanda from Tanzania and in 2015, 80 more displaced people arrived in Bukora.

YWAM started working with these displaced people when they first arrived, helping them to settle and to build churches. An established community has now developed, but the needs remain great in a population that still lacks basic utilities and which above all feels disenfranchised. APRECOM started working in Bukora in 2014 after BCT encouraged it to enlarge its vision from its work in Kigali and to embrace those in more isolated areas. For the first year, it focussed on building relationships with church leaders and community members in Bukora, since when it has established training programmes for church leaders, parents and carers, and clubs for children and teens. APRECOM has also started a sewing school, a gardening project and a support group for those who are HIV positive and vulnerable.

Bukora highlightsVisit to Sewing SchoolAPRECOM established the school at the request of disenfranchised teenagers and widows in Bukora, as a means of giving them skills to make a living. It was great to meet the sixteen youth and widows who are the first to get onto the one-year course run by experienced tailor, David Nestory. The walls of the rooms the students work in are covered with garments they have made, such as baby clothes, school uniforms, shirts and even shoes made out of old

‘For me, these seminars give me greater confidence in the running of my church. The teaching I get here helps to shape our mission. And now I have a relationship with other pastors.’ (Pastor Annette)

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tyres and material. APRECOM buys the products and sells them in Kigali, giving a percentage to those who made the garments and ploughing the rest back into the school.

It is obvious that for the youth and widows of this beautiful but somewhat isolated area, the options for making a living are limited to say the least. For those fortunate enough to get onto the course, the school is a lifeline.

Training seminar for church leadersWhen APRECOM first started working with nine churches in Bukora two years ago, the challenges were many. Suspicion and disunity existed between the church leaders themselves – particularly between those who came from Tanzania and those from Rwanda. Those from the more traditional churches mistrusted those with a Pentecostal ilk. But now, thanks to APRECOM’s influence and teaching, they freely meet together and are united.

The project started running quarterly HIV awareness, care and prevention sessions for churches a year ago. Church leaders and community members from Tanzania were totally unaware that HIV exists as they were living in isolated bush areas. They also brought with them a polygamous culture whereby men have many wives. Even brothers can sleep with each other’s wives; they say a woman is to be shared amongst the family. The pastors themselves do not have more than one wife, but their church members do. APRECOM is trying to get the church leaders to encourage men to have just one wife, but it is not easy.

The people in Bukora are afraid of having a test for HIV because they do not want to know the results. APRECOM is trying to change this mentality too and to get the church leaders to encourage HIV testing.

Many of the church leaders have a split view of the gospel. They see the purpose of the church as being simply to care for ‘spiritual needs’ rather than the social needs of those in their communities. So getting them to consider the practical care and support of people living with HIV, or even those who are poor, is not easy. APRECOM now wants to teach churches to make community vegetable gardens as a way of getting them to care for people holistically.

It was against this backdrop that we ran a seminar on God’s heart for children, the place of children in his mission and their holistic needs. All of this was taught from the perspective of being Christ’s ambassadors, tasked with representing our Lord Jesus Christ in Bukora and living out and promoting the culture and values of his kingdom. The teaching very obviously came as a complete revelation to these church leaders who had never considered the importance of children and their place in God’s mission. Many do not even have Sunday Schools. Few have received proper theological training. But

the responses were very encouraging. Said one pastor, ‘There is no Sunday School in my church, so I will recruit Sunday School teachers and try to get some training for them, so that we can start to include children in our church.’ Another committed to starting home visits to children in her Sunday School and yet another to welcome children at risk into his home and church and to help meet their needs.

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It was obvious that hearts had been touched and understanding enlarged, so Odeth will follow up this workshop with other, related teaching in the months to come.

Support of children and adults infected and affected by HIVA doctor from the hospital, who is in good relationship with APRECOM, says that very many of the youth in Bukora are known to be HIV positive, but these are just the tip of the iceberg as there is a general fear and reluctance to go for an HIV test. Polygamy helps to spread the disease as do the marriage of young girls to older men, high numbers of girls who offer sex for money, and young men who engage in sexual activities with several partners.

There are also many elderly people living with HIV or AIDS. I have been used to seeing young people infected with the virus, but with the advent of ARV therapy, many people are living with the disease into old age. Not only do they face the challenges that the senior years inevitably bring, but also the multiple issues raised by HIV itself and by poverty.

APRECOM runs a home visitation programme in Bukora for those infected or affected by HIV. In February 2016, it started a support group for people with HIV and those who are generally vulnerable for other reasons. 35 people currently attend the weekly group of which just eight people have HIV. However, as word of mouth gets round and the local clinic raises awareness of the group, APRECOM expects numbers of members to grow significantly.

It is obvious that HIV awareness and prevention and the care and support of those infected and affected by the virus will become increasingly important, and that this aspect of APRECOM’s work will need significant development and resources in the not-too-distant future.

Valery’s StoryDespite the struggles of those that live here, Bukora is an idyllic spot with peaceful, pastoral views. The pace of life is very slow. Cows amble along sandy tracks and the bleating of hobbled goats fills the air. On the horizon are the mountains of Tanzania, like a tantalising backdrop to the lives of those who were thrown out of the country.

Donation, Odeth and I are en route to visit a couple of families supported by APRECOM. Suddenly, an elderly-looking woman hurries down the track towards us, her arms wide open. This is 65 year-old Valery, one of the women we have come to visit. She leads us back to her simple, mud-brick house, and into a tiny, dark room that is completely bare except for two small, wooden benches. We elect to sit on them outside the front door, where it is cooler and light.

Valery’s face is deeply wrinkled and etched with a look that suggests profound emotional pain. Her eyes take on a far-away look as she shares her tragic story with us. ‘When my husband and I were forced to come here from Tanzania, it was bad enough. But then he died and my world fell apart. Worse was to come. I became ill and after having a test was told that I was HIV positive. I felt sick and bereft. Surely God had abandoned me. Then my daughter Candice became sick and it was discovered that she too has HIV. Her husband abandoned her for another woman. Others in the village saw that we were sick and wasting. They shunned us completely – stopped talking to us. We became like outcasts. We just had to get through one day at a time. But then we were put on special therapy and our health started to improve. I could go back to working in my garden. My daughter

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picked up, too. Then gradually, more and more people started being diagnosed with the virus and it has started to be accepted as “normal”. Now people talk to us again and we are included back in the community. I still have my fears, but God sees me through.’

Valery’s grandchildren come running down the track towards us and breathlessly fling themselves onto the bench next to their granny, who they obviously love. These are the children of Candice. Freddy is seven and Benita is nine. ‘These two keep me busy,’ acknowledges Valery, her face breaking into a smile.

Valery and Candice both go to APRECOM’s new, weekly support group for those who are vulnerable or affected by HIV. Valery deeply appreciates the support group. ‘It is a place to be encouraged and to share experiences with those who know what it’s like to live with this disease. We worship God and read the Bible. I always come away uplifted.’ We share scripture with Valery and pray for her. ‘You have really blessed me,’ she smiles. ‘Thank you.’

Good parenting Seminar in BukoraThese seminars started in March 2015. 100 parents, church and community leaders attend. The team began by encouraging the parents to listen to their children and to allow the children to come close to them, as some parents had no real contact with their children. In Tanzania it was said that cattle were more important than children. One man said to Odeth, ‘How can I talk with my child? My child is young. We have nothing to talk about. ‘APRECOM wants to help to turn the parents in Bukora towards their children and to teach them how to raise them God’s way.

APRECOM has also been helping to counsel some of the parents who have never come to terms with having to live in Bukora and who long to return to Tanzania. In cases where men are sharing wives, APRECOM is trying to stimulate conversations about this issue, with a view to bringing about change.

The impactThe team is starting to see a change. Children are no longer running wild but are with their parents. Parents have a better appreciation that they should send their children to school, although this is still a challenge. Previously, family members would go to church separately, but now they go together as a family. ‘The impact of our good parenting sessions can even be seen in the outward appearance of the parents,’ says Odeth. ‘They now come to the sessions having washed and wearing clean clothes. You can sense hope.’

This was certainly the case when we ran a seminar for parents and carers during my visit to Bukora. Many of the women arrived wearing the traditional, layered dress of multi-coloured fabrics, with sari-like silky wraps draped over their shoulders. Around 60 parents and elderly grandparents gathered under a couple of old tarpaulins stretched over poles in the grounds of a half-built church.

The seminar went well, with participants responding enthusiastically. They freely shared their thoughts and opinions and the group sessions were lively. It was clear that some had never heard Bible passages such as Matthew 18:2-6 or Mark 10:13-16, and their faces expressed amazement as we taught on how important their children are to God and their place in his mission and purposes. The parents discussed in groups some of the problems children experience in the villages of Bukora and what they can do to help alleviate them. They responded as follows:

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The Problem:‘Many children are running away from their homes because their needs are not being met. So they go to Kigali to try to find work as house girls or suchlike. Some do not return. Others run away because of constant fighting between their parents and violence in the home. This is fairly common.’

Solutions:‘We will pray for these children.’ ‘We will build relationship with families where we know there are fighting and difficulties, to invite them to our churches.’‘We know the families who fight and can form a committee whose members can visit them to offer counselling and support.’

The Problem:‘Many children are orphans who are treated badly by those who are supposed to be looking after them.’

Solutions:‘We will build relationship with the orphan children and their care-givers to offer support to the children and watch out for any abuse.’‘Where there are orphans who have dropped out of school, we can try to contribute towards their school fees.’

The Problem:‘There are children who are malnourished because their parents are uneducated and do not know about good nutrition.’

Solution:‘We will teach these families how to create small kitchen gardens that can grow a variety of vegetables including carrots, and will give them advice about giving their children a mixed diet.’

It’s obvious that this group of parents are enthusiastic and committed and could be a good influence in their communities. There is still much to teach them, as they themselves are ignorant about many things. I realise once again the vital importance of training and education and of gathering together groups so that they can share ‘community conversations’ about the vital, child-related issues that affect their lives and those of their children. In so doing, we are helping to plant seeds of change in hearts, minds and communities that will ultimately bear fruit and lead to the greater wellbeing of children.

Inshuti Nziza Club, BukoraOn average, 110-120 children of primary school age attend this club every Saturday afternoon.The team are building relationship with vulnerable children and those who have been forced to leave Tanzania. They are also trying to build relationship with the children’s families, because on the whole, the children fear their parents. Children in general are not valued. Many of the parents have an alcohol problem and beat their children when they are drunk. In Tanzania, fathers would go off for days to take their cows to look for pasture. Now the men are without purpose and feel they have lost their dignity. Children suffer as a result.

In a society where so many churches lack Sunday Schools and there are no children’s clubs, Inshuti Nziza is much needed. It’s not just a time for the children to learn about God and to develop a relationship with him. It’s also a time for learning basic life skills, to have fun together, to be valued

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and appreciated and to be encouraged. The children are responding well and forming good relationships with the team.

The impactThe children have started to wash themselves and have pride in their appearance. Also, there are now good relationships between the children who came from Tanzania and those who are local. They didn’t used to mix, but now they play happily together.

Previously, the children from Tanzania did not know that they are in fact Rwandan. They disliked being in Rwanda, and were traumatised from having to leave their home and friends in Tanzania. So APRECOM is beginning to teach them about local Rwandan culture with the result that the children are starting to feel at home and are making new friends.

Parents are now coming to Donatien to say he is doing a great job, because the children’s behaviour has changed. They get on with their household chores without being asked, and are just generally more obedient and responsible.

‘Teacher! Teacher! Teacher!’ the children cry out excitedly, waving their arms in the air and clicking their fingers to get Donatien’s attention. He is running the Inshuti Nziza club for children and quizzing them on the story of David and Goliath. The children are super-eager to give their answers and I am impressed by the way they hang on to Donatien’s every word.

He is an excellent children’s leader, keeping them rapt with attention and making learning fun. It’s obvious the children love him. Because we are running today’s club during the week, only 45 children have come. The children’s ages range from three to thirteen years, which is too wide. But Donatien doesn’t have the time or capacity to run separate classes. APRECOM are praying for more workers. However, given the limitations, it’s clear that the children mix well together and the older girls are as enthusiastic as the younger ones.

After a riotous couple of games, the children pray, led by a tiny chap who cannot be more than three years of age. He is also the one who hands around a box of biscuits for the children to eat before they go home. APRECOM has a lovely belief that all children can be encouraged to participate and to play their part, no matter how young they are. It’s great to see these children rising to the confidence placed in them.

The Queens’ ClubAPRECOM decided to start the Queens’ Club in Bukora and a village 45 minutes away called Kajera, because in Tanzania (where the girls have come from), many rural girls are married from 12 years of age. This is the culture that these girls have brought with them. Therefore, they have no sense of purpose or any vision for their lives. Many have never been to school. Some are unable to write. Their parents believe it is useless to send them to school because they will get married. So the girls simply stay at home, doing jobs in the house. If they are not married by 15 years of age, the parents say, ‘You should get married – you are old.’ Many girls are forced to get married to older men they don’t love or even like. Some girls run away from their parents because of this. They want a better life and to stop being harassed.

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APRECOM gradually brought together girls from difficult family backgrounds, young girls who had had babies, and older girls of sixteen years of age upwards, who are perceived as being too old to get married. Of the 35 girls who attend the Queens Club, 25 are under eighteen years of age. Some of them don’t even know when they were born and have no birth certificates. The club was started to give the girls a sense of dignity, identity and hope, and to help them to grow in faith and a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Joanna and Donatien run the weekly group. Initially they focussed on relationship building. Now the girls are learning about sex and sexual reproduction, how their bodies work and the menstrual cycle. They learn about their identity, about God’s father heart and about the Bible. The girls are also being encouraged to go for HIV testing. Three girls went for HIV tests recently. Fortunately the results all came back negative. The plan is for those girls who have never been to school to be recruited onto the next sewing school in December.

The impactPreviously, the girls lacked self worth, but that has changed. ‘Even their faces are different,’ says Odeth. ‘Before, they were dirty and looked unhappy. Now they are clean and they smile and talk a lot. Before, the girls did not have a personal opinion, but now they confidently share their thoughts.’

The light is starting to fade as we sit in our little living room in YWAM’s house with some of the girls from the Queens’ Club. Their ages vary from fifteen to 22 years. All of them look as though they have put on their best clothes and are at ease with each other. Odeth is great with the girls and they respond well to her warmth and interest in them. Each session starts with a catch-up chat before a time of prayer and worship. This has been a huge area of growth in the girls. Many of them have become worshippers, growing in a natural inclination to talk with God in prayer. ‘I am happiest when I am worshipping God,’ says fifteen year-old Sandra. ‘I want to grow to know and worship him more and more.’ Others agree. ‘I also love praying,’ agrees Christine. ‘It feels natural and I pray a lot now.’

Odeth recounts the story of Queen Esther from the Bible, stopping every now and then to invite the girls to share their thoughts and opinions about what they are hearing and how it relates to their lives. They obviously draw huge encouragement from the fact that Esther was an orphan from a lowly background and that God had a plan for her life.

The conversation naturally moves on to their own aspirations for their lives and how they feel God could use them to make a difference in Bukora. Kora is the first to share her thoughts. ‘So many girls in this village become pregnant before marriage and I want to help support them. Many youth in this village do not go to church and I want to encourage them to come.’

Susannah’s father died when she was young, leaving her mother to raise her. Now she has to care for her mum. ‘My desire is to support children in this village who are orphans, because there are a lot of them. I know how it feels to lose a parent and I can use my experience to help them.’ I encourage Susannah to become a ‘big sister’ to such children. ‘You could visit them to play and pray with them and just listen to them. It doesn’t have to be a big project. Build friendship with them and see how things go from there.’

The meeting ends with the girls joining hands and praying for each other. It’s been a touching time listening to the hopes, fears and dreams of these young girls. By the time we finish, darkness has come. We light the candles and the warm, flickering light plays on the girls’ faces. This has been their time. It has been a time when they can confide in others and grow in faith and confidence; a time when they can build stronger foundations in their lives and dare to hope for a different future; a

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time when they have learned that in God’s hands they can bring about change for good in their communities – like Queen Esther. I reflect that ‘Queens’ is a fitting name for their club.

FinallyBeing with the APRECOM team is pure joy, because they ooze the love of Christ in a tangible way. The relationship of staff members with him is the foundation of all that they do and because of that, they are able to build strong relationships with others and to persevere through the difficulties and trials they encounter on an almost daily basis.

Truly this ‘mustard seed’ work is growing and developing in a way that it is gradually changing the lives and attitudes of the individuals and communities it touches. It authentically bears witness to the ways and culture of God’s ‘upside down’ kingdom. Those on the margins are discovering their true identities and finding a place of belonging. Life and hope are breaking out as the good news of Christ is demonstrated in ways that are tangible. Because of APRECOM’s influence, churches and church leaders are breaking out of the deadening box of sterile ‘religion’ and are discovering the joy and blessing that come from experiencing and practicing grace and mercy, and from putting Christ’s love into action.

APRECOM has started a mini revolution in Kigali, Bugesera, Bukora, and Kajera that is drawing people together, lighting flames of hope and restoring faith and human kindness. Our part is to continue to hold up their arms with our prayers and support, so that those flames can continue to burn brightly and to spread.

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