Plans for 15th Genocide anniversary in top gear

The government has come up with new projects and campaigns, to be taken on as part of this year’s 15th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The event will be held under the theme; “Let us keep alive the memory of Genocide against Tutsi by fighting its revisionism as we build our country.” Speaking to The New Times yesterday, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission to Fight Genocide (CNLG), Jean de Dieu Mucyo, pointed to some projects that are in the pipeline, which include the Lighting a Candle of Hope project, the Messages of Hope project and One Dollar Campaign Project. “Lighting the Candle of Hope will help to increasing global awareness of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and donations to survivors will start before April and the candle will be lit at the commemoration vigil on April 7,” said Jean de Dieu Mucyo, the CNLG boss. Another project that is currently in progress has been dubbed ‘Messages of Hope’ which according to Mucyo, will continue after April, where people from around the world upload and see their own messages of Hope on a website. The Message of Hope project is an initiative of famous televangelist, Joyce Meyer, who currently plays a big role in supporting genocide survivors. Another project, the One Dollar Campaign Project, is a fundraising initiative of the Rwandan Diaspora and according to Mucyo; it will embark on raising money that will be invested in several projects in Rwanda. “One of those projects is to construct a big mansion for children genocide survivors where they will be spending their holidays,” stressed Mucyo. The One Dollar Campaign Project is expected to be intensified throughout the 100 days and beyond in which people are encouraged to support survivors. It is a charity initiative that will see approximately 200,000 Diaspora members mobilise a symbolic one dollar each to raise money to provide shelter for Genocide survivors in different parts of Rwanda. Previous predictions indicate that over $100,000 could be collected in a period of 100 days, symbolic of the Genocide days. However much more will be raised from the project that seeks to provide shelter especially to young Genocide survivors in schools and universities who don’t have where to go during holidays. In a related development, Rwanda will host the International conference of genocide scholars that is slated for April 4 to April 6 this year. The meeting, according to Mucyo will draw scholars from several universities all over the world who will formulate the establishment of the memory of genocide and combat its ideology, negationism and revisionism the world over. The Government has meanwhile appointed an inter-ministerial taskforce that will be charged with preparing this year’s event. The taskforce is made up of officials from the Ministries of Information, Culture and the Foreign Affairs. Ends