Survivors Voices: Speaking to educate young people and raising awareness on Genocide Victims Day.

9 min readDec 11, 2016

Survivors Voices: Speaking to educate young people and raising awareness on Genocide Victims Day. #askgenocidesurvivor

The genocide happened in my country Rwanda because of a number of reasons i.e. the influence of colonialism, bad politics of divisions and extremism that took advantage of the masses who weren’t educated enough to understand the implications of the instructions that they were being given. For years the elite politicians had championed the culture of hatred and divisionism which was meant to keep them in power at the expense of a united Rwanda where all ethnicities could have shared everything and lived in harmony. These issues stemmed from the 1959 social revolutions where the vast majority of the Tutsi population were killed or expelled into the neighboring countries and that led to a discriminatory regime within Rwanda that existed for over 30 years.

The humanity and courage shown by my teammates was a significant lesson in the power of sport and is the inspiration behind my belief in sport and football in particular as a highly effective tool for achieving sustainable social change. It is from this belief that I have been able to found two charitable organisations Football for Hope Peace and Unity (FHPU) a platform that uses football as a tool to promote unity reconciliation and encourage development among Rwandan and non Rwandan youth and thereby helping to prevent such tragedies happening again in the future, and Survivors Tribune, a platform designed for storytelling for survivors of modern genocides and other global conflicts (e.g. Rwanda, Sudan, Syria and beyond) in an effort to help them tell their story via an educational awareness initiative.

Media and politicians had enormous influence on making genocide possible in my country. Before April 7 1994 hatred and extremism dominated the airwaves and print media of Rwanda, and politicians campaigned throughout the country using language and statements that encouraged people to commit genocide.

No I certainly don’t, purely because the world has failed time and again. After the Nazi Holocaust had been exposed and its perpetrators condemned, the international community declared “Never again.” Yet tragically, deliberate attempts to exterminate an entire race of people have not been confined to the history books of the mid-twentieth century. Genocide has since occurred from Cambodia in 1975, Bosnia in 1995, Darfur in 2003 and in my country Rwanda in 1994. It is clear that people did not learn lessons to prevent recurrence of these terrible tragedies. You only have to look at what’s going on in countries such as Sudan, Burundi, Burma, Syria and other places around the world.

We need to educate future generations about the history of genocide and its consequences, and embrace the culture of forgiveness and love to avoid any future genocide and violence. The world at large need to treat genocide and its consequences as something that doesn’t only happen somewhere else but as something that can happen to any community anywhere.

Rwanda has drastically changed since the genocide with peace, security, reconciliation and development at the heart of our journey of change. The country has taken on a new identity of a forward thinking nation that seeks to advance the quality of life of its people with social development, self belief and accountability at the heart of the governmental policies. Despite moving on from the aftermath of the genocide the experience and suffering that stems from the Genocide continues to influence the way We Rwandans live our lives daily.

There were so many bravery and heroics acts by ordinary Rwandans who hide people and members of the RPF/RPA rebel army who fought against the killers and rescued many survivors throughout the 100 days of genocide in Rwanda. As Rwanda descended into total chaos and was abandoned by the international community, in my personal case sporting solidarity became a matter of life and death. My Hutu teammate, Munyurangabo made sure that I and a number of other people were all looked after, providing us with protection, supplies and, most of all, hope. When we were hungry, he went out to look for food. When we were in danger of being discovered, he got information that enabled some of us to escape to the safe area of the city. When we were threatened, he negotiated with killers and, in my case, he even paid his own money to free me and some of my colleagues from the clutches of the Interahamwe militias. More than ten people sheltered at Munyurangabo’s house… only Munyurangabo himself lost his life. Munyurangabo was not a Tutsi. He was not even a so-called ‘Tutsi sympathiser’. He was just an ordinary man who happened to be an incredible human being, with courage and humanity that most people inside and outside Rwanda lacked, at a time when people needed it most. So to me the humanity and character shown by my teammate was the stand out act of individual bravery during the genocide. However, there were so many others who acted bravely to save many other survivors, unfortunately they were outnumbered by the killers and their complices.

@e_murangwa and @amouna_adam with @genocide8020 group members just before the start of #twitterchat live session.

Having survived, do you despair or do you have hope/faith in humanity, & why? @RWBAHolocaust

What kind of people were the perpetrators? By @_genocide_aware

The vast majority were ordinary Rwandan people from all walks of life and who were our neighbors or people that we had gone to school together, worked together and in some cases were members of the same family! On the other hand there were also groups of militias known as Interahamwe that had been specifically mobilized and trained in order to eliminate the Tutsi. These militias usually led the attacks and were then followed by the local perpetrators. Says @e_murangwa

Amouna: the government brought soldiers and militia from outside to hurt us.

What type of justice has been sought for those responsible for this genocide? By @mattgill1984

There have been two dimensions of justice systems that were put in place starting with the establishment of the UN International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda that focused on the leaders of the government that was in power and the second dimension was the adoption of the Traditional Rwanda court system known as GACACA which tried the majority of the perpetrators. The biggest issue that faced the judicial system after the Genocide was that the system had collapsed and the government resulted to traditional systems ie Gacaca and this provided an ideal system to process the high number of prisoners that would have taken over a 100 years to process and cost millions of dollars which wasn’t available. Says @e_murangwa

What happened afterwards — what were the consequences? By @mattgill1984

What happened afterwards- Obviously there was a long period of soul searching had grown through the worst that any country could have possibly gone through having lost over 1 million people and over 3 million people went into exile, the country had virtually collapsed and we Rwandans decided to come together to reunite and rebuild the country from the scraps of the war and the genocide. The reconciliation and unity process has produced very encouraging results but the journey is still going on.

The government in place chose to abolish ID cards which were detrimental during the genocide and Rwanda has become a beacon of economic development and chose to look inwards to come up with solutions that have resulted in self independence and high self belief however the challenges remain in place.

The survivors are still trying to overcome the nightmares that they went through and there is still security issues resulting from the people that took part in the genocide and are still harboring in the neighboring countries that have formed SEMI functional rebel groups and these are challenges that the country will have to go through for a long period of time. Says @e_murangwa

What should the role of ‘peacekeeping’ organisations be in these types of conflict and how much ‘action’ should they be permitted? By @DanClifton

Let me start by highlighting the failure of international community and the UN peace keeping mission during the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. It had been clear for some time that a crisis was brewing. The UN had ample evidence of the potential for catastrophic violence in Rwanda. Yet when the genocide started, the UN pulled its force out and foreigners were evacuated to safety, giving the killers a clear signal that they could continue unrestrained. This international community failure resulted in the loss of over a million lives of innocent people, which included more than 35 members of my extended family. Among those who perished because of the lack of international community reaction was my seven-year-old brother of mine Irankunda Jean Paul. My young brother had left for a cousin’s house in the Kigali suburb of Ndera on April 6th where he was to stay during the Easter holidays. The relative worked in the local psychiatric hospital, and he sought sanctuary there when the genocide began, under the supposed protection of the UN. Yet, when it cancelled its peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, their security came to an end. While the UN soldiers rescued European citizens, the Rwandan nationals were left to the mercy of the Hutu militia, which had already surrounded the hospital. They killed almost everyone.

As survivors, we feel we were betrayed in our hour of utmost need. It was a failure at Government level, it was a failure at Inter-Governmental level, it was a failure of humanity.

It is clear that the so called peace keeping missions hardly work or at least work to save lives. The prime mandate for peacekeeping missions should be all about saving lives at any cost , unfortunately, this isn’t what most if not all peacekeeping mandates are there for, as the UNAMIR in Rwanda in 1994 showed us. The decisions that appoint these Peace missions need to go the extra mile to empower forces on the ground and the policies that allow them to serve need to be wide enough to go beyond self defense and allow them to participate in rescue missions. Says @e_murangwa

What happened to your family? By @mattgill1984

I always say that I am one of the luckiest survivors as most of my immediate family members survived, though I lost over 35 members of my extended family, including my youngest brother Irankunda Jean Paul, who was just 7 years old at the time. Many of my fellow survivors have lost so many members of their own families and quite a number of them were left alone. My parents and one of my young brother managed to flee and seek refuge at St Famille Cathedral in the city centre of capital Kigali, my sister and another young brother survived from Gisimba orphanage alongside other 400 kids and some adults, and then another young brother fled to St Paul Church where he was later rescued by the RPF soldiers together with another 3000 people. Says @e_murangwa

Why you? By @Ernulf_OM

Well, for many years after the genocide, I kept asking myself the same question ‘why me?’ And only recently I came to realise that those who survived had all survived for a purpose, which is to make sure our loved ones weren’t lost in vain. The only way we can do that is to make sure that what happened to them, and to us, never happens to our children. And this is the main reason why I do what I do “raising awareness and educating people especially young ones about the genocide as well as campaigning for peace.” Says @e_murangwa

@e_murangwa and @amouna_adam during the discussion #twitterchat live session @HamptonSchool

How are you now? By @jonsnowC4

I am very well thank you. The genocide in Rwanda has left a lasting effect on the survivors whose lives have been devastated. Our suffering did not stop with the killings but lingers on 23 years later. Surviving the genocide itself alone is a big achievement but finding a reason to carry on is even a bigger challenge. Despite the challenges some of us have decided to move away from the horrors of the genocide, and instead focus on the contribution the survivors community can make to society both at home in Rwanda, and around the world. My life today is about using my survival experience for good which I am doing as a genocide education activist and peace campaigner through my two charitable organizational Football for Hope Peace and Unity and Survivors Tribune. Says @e_murangwa

What do you make of the world that you have survived to live in? By @jonsnowC4

The world at large has failed to intervene to prevent genocide, nor has it come forward to give enough support to survivors of the genocide. Whatever the lessons learnt, survivors of genocide in Rwanda and many other vulnerable groups around the world cannot feel assured that Never Again really means Never Again. The world doesn’t seem to have learnt much from the Rwandan tragic experience as similar cases continue to happen today, you only have to look at what’s going on in countries such as Sudan, Burundi, Burma, Syria and other places around the world. The global refugee crisis which is affecting millions of people, including children, and is not being dealt with in line with the responsibilities and obligations that the international community has to protect them adequately. Says @e_murangwa

What hope was seen and what hope is seen in the nations today? By @Lady_B_Crawford

There was no hope at all because life had lost all its meaning, terror and death had taken over from all forms of life as neighbors turned on neighbors, family turned on family, and love turned to hate. The genocide turned Hutu and Tutsi into enemies. Twenty three years later hostility has been replaced by reconciliation and forgiveness, restoring communities and relationships bringing hope for future. Says @e_murangwa

@e_murangwa and @amouna_adam with @HamptonSchool students.

How are you sharing your experience within schools in Rwanda and other African nations schools? By @mattgill1984

My work within Rwandan schools have so far been through sport for social impact and peace where my organisation FHPU is involved in specific football programmes tackling issues such as conflict prevention, peace-building, female empowerment and health awareness (including HIV). Through collaboration with local and international organisations; we have been developing ways that empower Rwandan communities to use football as a means of promoting social cohesion, nation building, and improving the quality of life of all Rwandans. To this day, the PlayforHopeRwanda20 coaching programme has been able to train over 600 local community coaches and is impacting thousands of children across the country. Going forward FHPU plan is to start a new programme “FHPU Sports Academy” designed to offer even higher quality training to better equip sports coaches with the skills and knowledge to teach/coach about social issues, personal values, behavior, and attitude — as well as sport skills — for men, women, and children across Rwanda. This is something we hope we can also extend to other conflict affected countries in Africa and around the world. The aim is to build a network of coaches capable of simultaneously delivering social values and sport skills which will contribute towards facilitating community-led successes in the following areas;

Social Community Development — Including Social Inclusivity, and Fighting Discrimination and Prejudices in all forms; racism, gender inequality, homophobia, religious intolerance, ableism, and helping to bring an end to issues that lead people to become refugees.

Individual Development, Physical and Mental Wellbeing, Professional Sport Skills and Economic Development.

What message do you have for the Rohingya people currently undergoing genocide but with little recognition from international community? By @JamilaHanan

As someone who has suffered from state discrimination and oppression I can sympathize and try to relate to what they are going through but one way of going through such a struggle is never to give up despite the lack of international support or recognition.

The Rohingyas’ situation is a clear demonstration of how the international community has chosen to ignore lessons learned from Rwanda and other countries. It saddens me to see how little importance the global superpowers have given to the situation and the double standards by the international community showing support for one of Burma’s political prisoners and yet they care less about the vast numbers of people that are perishing. Says @e_murangwa

We would like to thank our partners at Hampton School for hosting and coordinating this special event.