—Umuco W’Urukundo · Los Angeles · Operating globally
KIND
KULTURE
Storytelling as
a Way of Healing
FEATURED SPEAKER & CO-FOUNDER
Dydine Umunyana Anderson
Rwandan Genocide Survivor · Author of Still Here & Embrace Life
International Speaker · Youth Peace Ambassador
Hate is taught. And anything taught can be unlearned.
Kind Kulture uses personal storytelling — led by survivors, youth, and people history tried to silence — to interrupt the cycles of dehumanization that lead to violence, division, and inherited trauma.
Founded by Rwandan genocide survivor and author Dydine Umunyana Anderson, we have spent a decade proving what peacebuilding researchers have long argued: the human story, told well, is the single most effective tool against hate that humanity has ever developed.
THE PROBLEM WE EXIST TO SOLVE
Dehumanization doesn’t start with violence. It starts with silence.
Before every genocide, every hate crime, every act of mass violence, there is a slow erasure — of stories, of names, of the human face of the “other.” It happens in classrooms where history is flattened. In police stations where communities and officers never meet outside of crisis. In families where trauma is inherited but never spoken.
The research is clear. When people hear a real story — not a statistic, not a headline, a human account — empathy measurably increases, prejudice measurably decreases, and the likelihood of bystander intervention goes up. The problem isn’t that this doesn’t work. The problem is that almost no one is doing it at scale, in the rooms that need it most.
That’s where we come in.
10+
Years of storytelling & community work
3+
Countries reached through programs
8yrs
Leading Educators & law enforcement dialogue sessions
100,000+
Students reached
FOUNDED BY
Dydine Umunyana Anderson Author · International Speaker · Rwandan Genocide Survivor
Alex Anderson Creative Director · Filmmaker · Co-Founder
OUR MISSION
Using story to build
what hate tried
to destroy
Kind Kulture is the English expression of a Kinyarwanda idea. In Rwanda, the word umuco means “culture” — but not culture in the surface sense of food, music, or custom. It means someone who is kind, loving, disciplined, and a true member of their community. There is no single English word for it.
Umuco W’Urukundo — “a culture of love” — is who we are in Kinyarwanda. Kind Kulture is who we are in English. Our nonprofit is legally registered as Omuco Love; we operate globally as Kind Kulture. Two names. One meaning.
OUR APPROACH — THEORY OF CHANGE
Three stages. Ten years of evidence.
01 Story as Mirror
A survivor shares their lived experience. Participants — students, officers, leaders, community members — see their own fear, loss, or inherited pain reflected. Self-recognition begins.
02 Story as Bridge
In facilitated dialogue, people who would never meet each other in ordinary life begin to speak, and more importantly, to listen. LAPD officers and immigrant teenagers. Holocaust survivors and Rwandan survivors. American high-schoolers and Colombian youth. Connection across difference happens.
03 Story as Change
Participants leave with something they didn’t have when they walked in — a question, a commitment, a changed way of seeing a person they were taught to fear. In our eight-year partnership with law enforcement dialogue sessions alone, we have seen officers change how they describe the communities they serve. Behavior shifts. Culture shifts.
Our Work :
Kind Kulture operates across three core areas:
Publishing
We publish books and stories that preserve lived experience and cultural memory across generations.
Programs
We design storytelling experiences that help individuals and communities process, heal, and share their voices.
Partnerships
We collaborate with schools, organizations, and institutions to bring this work into communities worldwide.
Our Programs
Three programs, one mission.
Program 1:
Storytelling for Healing.
Facilitated workshops that help individuals — survivors, immigrants, trauma-affected youth — process their own stories and reclaim their voice. Outcomes measured: participant-reported emotional processing, willingness to share publicly, community reintegration.
Program 2:
Youth Voices
School- and university-based programs helping young people explore identity, belonging, and the roots of division through guided storytelling. Outcomes measured: empathy scales (pre/post), bystander intervention intent, educator-reported classroom climate.
Program 3:
Cultural Memory & Publishing
Books, essays, and cross-cultural dialogue programs that preserve stories history tries to erase. Includes Dydine’s books Embrace Life (2024 ed.) and the forthcoming Still Here: A Survivor’s Case Against Hate (2027). Outcomes measured: distribution, curriculum adoption, cross-generational reach.
FOUNDER
Dydine Umunyana Anderson Author · International Speaker · Co-Founder
ABOUT DYDINE
A survivor who turned
her story into
a movement
Dydine survived the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda at age four. In the thirty years since, she has built a life and a body of work dedicated to one question: how does a human being rebuild after the world has tried to erase them — and how do we stop that erasure from happening to the next generation?
She is the author of Embrace Life and the forthcoming Still Here: A Survivor’s Case Against Hate (2026), and for over eight years she has led facilitated dialogues with law enforcement, educators, youth, and survivors of violence in the U.S. and internationally.
Alongside co-founder Alex Anderson — creative director, filmmaker, and the organization’s visual storytelling lead — she built Kind Kulture to do at institutional scale what she had been doing one room at a time.
SHE HAS SPOKEN AT Museum of Tolerance · Harvard University · Google · Facebook · TEDx Cornell · FILBO Colombia 2024 · Aegis Trust · Serve to Unite · LAPD & Law Enforcement Agencies · Holocaust Museums nationally
Alex Anderson A CINEMATOGRAPHER · CREATIVE DIRECTOR · CO-FOUNDER
ABOUT ALEX
The creative mind
building the visual
side of the story
Alex Anderson is a creative director, filmmaker, and storyteller dedicated to crafting meaningful narratives that bridge culture, identity, and human connection. As co-founder of Kind Kulture Community, his work sits at the intersection of visual storytelling, social impact, and community engagement.
As Creative Director of Kind Kulture's production efforts, Alex leads the visual and narrative execution of the organization's content — producing films, campaigns, and digital media that inspire reflection and dialogue.
Shepard Century Productions: A creative studio producing high-quality, story-driven content for brands, artists, and purpose-aligned organizations. Films · Campaigns · Digital Media. Led by Alex Anderson, Creative Director.
WHY STORYTELLING
"Hate is not who we are.
It is what we were taught.
And anything that was taught —
can be unlearned."
— DYDINE UMUNYANA ANDERSON, STILL HERE (2027)
The most powerful tool against dehumanization is a human story told well
Kind Kulture exists because we have seen what happens when people hear each other's real stories. Something shifts. Not in a vague way. In a measurable, lasting way.
That is not a theory. That is thirty years of lived evidence — from Rwanda, to Los Angeles, to Colombia, to every room where Dydine has stood and told the truth.
Publishing
Embrace Life
Original 2016 & New edition 2024Dydine’s first memoir — the story of surviving the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi and building a life rooted in healing, purpose, and joy. Published in Spanish as Abraza la Vida in Colombia, 2024.
NEW BOOK — 2027Still Here:
A Survivor's Case Against Hate by Dydine Umunyana Anderson "Hate is not who we are. It is what we were taught. And anything that was taught can be unlearned." Coming 2027. Click to be notified at launch.
Testimonials
"Dydine, I am the teacher of this class. Thank you for sharing your story with my students. Really all I wanted to say is: wow. What a beginning."
— Middle School Teacher · San Diego, CA"I was in Rwanda right after the genocide. I cannot believe you are here. That you made it here." — Law Enforcement Officer · Los Angeles dialogue session
— Law Enforcement Officer · Los Angeles MOT dialogue session"When I speak it, you hear it. And when I speak it, I see it. That is why we must never stop telling the truth." — Rose Beryl · Holocaust Survivor · 91 years old
— Rose Beryl · Holocaust Survivor · 91 years old
UMUNYANA COFFEE
A cup that carries a story. Umunyana Coffee connects Rwandan women genocide survivors to international markets — bringing economic opportunity and dignity to those who survived the genocide, while educating American consumers about where their morning cup comes from. "Umunyana" — Kinyarwanda for "something you see once in a lifetime that brings you luck." Every bag is a story. Every sip is solidarity. [Shop Umunyana Coffee → link to umunyana.com]
THE ASK
We are a small organization doing work that the world cannot afford to let lapse.
Kind Kulture operates on a lean budget, a founder who is also the primary program deliverer, and a track record that institutions ten times our size would envy. To move from “a powerful program” to “a sustainable institution,” we are seeking partners in three areas:
$25,000 funds one full semester of Youth Voices programming in a partner school
$50,000 funds a full year of law-enforcement–community dialogue sessions in a single city
$100,000+ underwrites the 2027 publication and national tour of Still Here: A Survivor’s Case Against Hate
Monthly giving from $15/month upward sustains the daily infrastructure that keeps the work going between grants
