Members of ‘Our Past’ will this year mark the 10th edition of educating, and making changes in different ways in the community as Rwandans prepare for the 27th commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi. Created and organised by Sick City Entertainment, ‘Our Past’ is a youth-led initiative that aims to educate young people about the Genocide and to inspire them to take the initiative to rebuild the country through poetry, musical performances, drama, dance, theatre, and workshops with leaders. Since its inception in 2012, the initiative has grown in different areas, whereby the attendance of its events grew from 400 to 2,300 in Rwanda. The majority of Our Past’s events take place during the commemoration period. Christian Intwari, the brain behind the initiative, describes the 10-year journey of ‘Our Past’ as a successful one. “Looking back and seeing what we have accomplished as a team of young people gives me hope for the future of this country, if we come together as this country’s next generation of leaders and people in different sectors,” Intwari told The New Times in an interview. The initiative has grown and extended to other countries from different parts of the world whereby members of ‘Sick City Entertainment Group’ who are based in other countries hold similar events in their respective countries for young Rwandans in the Diaspora and other attendees. Same events are now happening in China, Malaysia, Canada and the United States every year. “Through the funds we acquired from different sources, the youth were, through the initiative, able to support four families from Icyizere village in Kanombe Sector to start poultry,” Intwari further shared. They also managed to renovate six houses, built one house and facilitated easy access to water for five families in Ntarama Sector. In collaboration with Bugesera District administration, ‘Our Past’ plans to take similar projects to another place in the same district this year. Intwari said that he is proud of what they have achieved in the past decade and vowed to serve more to the community in the next ten years. “We are looking forward to doubling or tripling the effort and the results. When we started, we weren’t very sure of what we were doing, and there was a time we felt like giving up. But, after some time, we realised that we were bigger than what was stopping us from achieving our goals,” he said. Due to the circumstances of the ongoing pandemic, this year’s event will be held virtually to allow people to follow their events from home.
