1960
Birth in Ishara begins a life story rooted in Rwanda's western region.
Jean Baptiste Sengayire was born in Ishara, Kagano sector, Nyamasheke District, in the Western Province of Rwanda.
Founder journey
Jean Baptiste Sengayire's life story moves from birthplace to public witness, and from local ministry to an institution of care.
This route traces the founder from Ishara in 1960 to present-day Kigali, showing how proximity to community pain, faith-based service, and enduring relationships shaped the foundation's mission.
Biographical snapshot
A Rwandan husband, father, and community servant whose public work stayed close to lived realities.
The founder story is not ornamental. It explains why FB2F keeps returning to dignity, peace, accompaniment, and productive self-reliance.
Jean Baptiste Sengayire is a Rwandan national, married, and a father of seven children. He was born in Ishara in 1960, in Kagano sector, Nyamasheke District, in Rwanda's Western Province.
For security reasons, his parents moved to Kigali in 1968. He now lives with his family in Kigarama sector, Kicukiro District, a place whose recent history has included social strain, insecurity, war, and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
That close relationship to place helps explain the founder's public posture: care had to be concrete, peace had to be lived, and dignity had to survive real pressure.
Rwandan
Nationality
Kicukiro, Kigali
Home district
34 years of service
Calling
Timeline
From birth to today's institutional platform.
Each milestone shows how birthplace, conflict, service, peacebuilding, and relationship turned into a longer founder arc.
1968
The family relocates to Kigali for security reasons.
The move to Kigali placed the founder inside a different urban reality and eventually into the Kigarama context that would shape his public mission.
1991
The Mission of the Glorious Cross of St. Francis of Assisi is established.
In Kigarama, the founder established a movement built around consolation, self-esteem, and respect of dignity for all.
1992
The local context becomes more fragile and the need for faithful presence grows.
Kigarama faced HIV and AIDS pressures linked to transport corridors, intensifying the need for work grounded in human dignity and social repair.
1994
War and genocide deepen the founder's commitment to peace and brotherhood.
The insecurity and genocide against the Tutsi reinforced the urgency of building a culture of peace, life sharing, and accompaniment without segregation.
Post-1994
The relationship with the Bierlmeier family widens the founder's horizon of solidarity.
The witness of Michael and Cornelia Bierlmeier showed how international friendship, hospitality, and care for vulnerable children could become a shared vocation.
2009
Michael Bierlmeier's death turns memory into responsibility.
His example of integrity, nursing care, and public advocacy for orphans becomes part of the moral inheritance carried by the future foundation.
2021
Cornelia Bierlmeier's death confirms the need to preserve the witness in institutional form.
Her life of care for children and vulnerable people remained active in memory, reinforcing the foundation's commitment to keep the story alive through action.
Today
The founder's service arc now anchors a public platform for durable community work.
FB2F translates the founder's long journey into an institutional model that links mission, partnerships, and practical pathways for communities to flourish.
Leadership posture
The founder's legacy is defined by peacebuilding, accompaniment, and a refusal of segregation.
These principles explain the kind of institution FB2F is trying to become.
Leadership principle
Stay close to people and place.
The founder story is marked by proximity to neighborhoods, families, and the actual conditions shaping dignity and risk.
Leadership principle
Build peace as a lived culture, not a slogan.
The transformation of Kigarama into a city of peace demonstrates a practical commitment to reconciliation and life sharing.
Leadership principle
Protect dignity through consolation, self-esteem, and accompaniment.
The work aims to restore the inner and social conditions people need in order to participate productively in community life.
Leadership principle
Recognize goodwill wherever it is found.
The founder explicitly acknowledges that people of good will, even outside his own denomination, can be true partners in building a more dignified world.
Continuity
The founder story does not end with biography; it becomes a public institution.
The current site, programs, and partnerships are a way of carrying forward the founder's ministry of sacrificial love in forms that communities can actually use.
Drawing on decades of preaching sacrificial love, fighting for peace, and rejecting every form of segregation, the founder concluded that the work needed a durable institutional shell capable of welcoming many people of goodwill.
FB2F is that shell: a public platform intended to preserve memory, widen collaboration, and move from personal witness toward a foundation that can serve communities over the long term.
Shared future
The founder legacy now becomes common work.
Join FB2F as a volunteer, implementing partner, donor, or strategic collaborator. The invitation is to contribute to grounded, long-term work that helps communities build the future they want to sustain.
Public mission
FB2F carries biography into institution, partnership, and route-level action.
FB2F is rooted in a legacy of service and dedicated to tackling social injustice, strengthening human dignity, and building sustainable community-led pathways to resilience.