Teachers have been trained on how to address challenges they face when it comes to telling their students about the genocide against the Tutsi. According to teachers, at times it is difficult to speak enough about the genocide since they fear to hurt a number of students who are emotionally connected to the tragedies, or in other cases, the teachers themselves are afraid they might get emotional in front of their own students. In a three-day training organised by AEGIS Trust, a not-for-profit organisation and the Educators Institute for Human Rights, secondary school teachers were trained on genocide studies, tipping them on their role in peace education towards the young generation. Ron Adam, the Israeli ambassador to Rwanda was one of the officials who offered training to the teachers, and in an interview, he said it is very important not to leave such vital education component behind, saying that the denial of the genocide and Jewish holocaust continue, and this should be tackled by continuous learning and remembrance. “It is critical to continue discussing, remember, and learn about the genocide and the holocaust because they are very similar. Both are processes that took years before the killing started. We can learn to prevent, God forbid, another genocide,” he said. Jean Boniface Buranga, a teacher at Groupe Scolaire Nyamugari in Ngoma district highlighted some of the challenges they face in telling their students about the genocide, “There are times we have felt like restraining from talking about it because we thought we were going to hurt the children, because some of them come from families of victims, and others may be related to perpetrators. Sometimes, you yourself as a teacher may be afraid that you will get emotional infront of your students,” he said. Such things hinder teachers from offering knowledge to their students in such critical fields, yet according to Kate English, one of the trainers and the Executive Director of the Educators Institute for Human Rights, teachers are important in cultivating understanding, empathy, community, “and awareness of history that helps us build a better future.” Freddy Mutanguha the Executive Director of AEGIS Trust echoed similar sentiments, “Working with the holocaust and genocide scholars, it is good to put efforts together in teaching this because we know that there are some that deny the genocide against the Tutsi,” he said. Jean Nepo Ndahimana, AEGIS Trust’s Coordinator for Peace Education said that thousands of teachers have been trained so far around the country and there are testimonies of change from those that have been trained,
