Twenty-five years on, the Rwandan genocide is still acutely felt
Agahozo Shalom Youth Village was set up in 2008 by the late, SA-born lawyer Anne Heyman, who had worked in the US
Agahozo Shalom Youth Village — Vincent de Paul Ruhumuriza was born in Rwanda just a few months before genocide consigned his father to an unknown grave and traumatised his mother so badly she still screams and shakes at any mention of that time. But, helped by a model of healing dating back to the Holocaust, the 25-year-old has finished his education and blended into a new family, where individuals grieving lost loved ones have rebuilt their lives by caring for each other. “People should not be driven by the past,” he told Reuters this week, as the country prepared to mark a quarter of a century since Hutu militias killed about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. “I want to grow into someone who will benefit society.” Seven years ago, Ruhumuriza’s life was on course to become another small tragedy in a nation where every family is touched by grief. He and his mother lived in poverty. His father’s death in the genocide was a mystery — the only time he ever tried to ask about it, his m...
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