Editor,

Allow me space through your paper, to express my opinion about what should be done, particularly during the 15th anniversary of the genocide commemoration.

Much as we remember and pay tribute to over a million lives  which perished during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, we should also develop the same spirit to support those who survived the bloodbath.  

The traditional of honouring and remembering the dead is incredibly important, especially for Rwanda, because there are some individuals who still deny that what happened in the country at the time was not Genocide, but rather ordinary killings.

In Rwanda, Genocide victims are remembered annually, and given decent burials, but what about the survivors, have we been able to cry along with them, and to sympathise with them?

There are several women and girls, who were tortured and raped by gangs; all this after seeing their husbands and children butchered before them. And as a result, some of them acquired deadly transmittable diseases like HIV/Aids.

These women and girls, who were raped and infected by the killers, are now traumatised and living a miserable life. They have no or less access to anti-retrovirus drugs, yet the people who infected them are catered for by the United Nations while in prison.

Others, who survived death and rape never, suffered poverty. Many of them are living under the poverty line, while the orphans have less access to education facilities. These people need our love and care.

By all standards, they do not have anyone else to look up to, except us, their fellow countrymen. It’s, however, in this regard, that I urge all Rwandans and whoever has the heart of humanitarian, to consider supporting the Genocide survivors, both spiritually and financially.

Remera