Children pledge to fight genocide ideology

Hundreds of children representatives from all corners of the country promised to raise their voices against the genocide ideology as they completed their annual summit Tuesday in Kigali. The annual meeting brings together children chosen by their peers across the country to convey their wishes to the country’s leaders and contribute ideas for use in drafting the country’s policies. 416 children delegates gathered in Kigali from last week-end to tackle the genocide ideology. Among other recommendations upon completing their summit, children resolved that government should help them start anti-genocide clubs in their areas. “Some parents really have ill mentalities and they still call people with long noses Tutsis… we can’t hide such things when they are still happening…I am going to gather both children and grown up people in my village and teach them that what they are busy doing has no place in Rwanda today,” said Jean Paul Niyotwizera from Gisagara District, Southern Province. His plan is not different from that of Murekatete Devota who travelled from her native area of Nyange Sector in Musanze District, Northern Province, to attend the meeting. “Sometimes our parents or other grown-up people have tendencies to grow seeds of discrimination into us. We need to say no and sensitise them against it,” she said. The children also want government to provide them with books against genocide ideology, take all children to school, and sensitise their parents on how to avoid discriminatory tendencies. The authorities during the conference pledged to help the children and steps are to be taken. “There is nothing difficult in setting up all of these things. It gives us hope that there is a good future for these children,” said Dr. Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office in charge of Gender and Family Promotion. She said that government institutions like the Ministry of Local Government, Good Governance, Community Development and Social Affairs (MINALOC), and the anti-genocide commission work together to set terms of references for starting the children’s anti-genocide clubs. She said that government tries to match clubs like those against crime and human rights that are already in place in some areas with the ones against genocide ideology. The children’s annual meeting was first held in 2004. Successive children’s summits have been able to integrate children’s recommendations into the country’s Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS). Ends

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Children pledge to fight genocide ideology