Our Press Releases
SURF calls on International Action to Support Women Survivors in Rwanda for International Widows' Day
London – 22nd June 2006
Ahead of International Widows' Day, on Friday 23rd June 2006, Survivors Fund (SURF) has called for the international community to act to support women survivors widowed in the Rwandan genocide who were raped and infected with HIV/AIDS.
Through funding from the Department for International Development, SURF is facilitating a five-year programme supporting 2,500 women survivors with antiretroviral treatment. In addition, through private donations, SURF supports a further 300 women on the programme. But there are a further 7,000 women still awaiting access to treatment. Many of these women are widows, who are solely responsible for orphans of the genocide. Treatment enables them to lead a healthy and economically active life again, and support their families.
As well, many widows have recently been targeted for giving evidence against perpetrators of the genocide at gacaca (village court) trials. The perpetrators have given amnesty in the name of national reconciliation, but no measures have been taken to provide protection to survivors. As widows die from AIDS related illnesses, or through retribution, their testimony is lost forever
SURF Founder and Director Mary Kayitesi Blewitt will speak on these issues at the International Widows' Conference organised by The Loomba Trust and Chaired by Cherie Booth QC at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London on 23rd June. She will call on delegates to act now to support widows of the genocide:
"Action that is needed is threefold. Funding to enable the remaining widows who were raped during the genocide and are now HIV positive to access treatment. Second, we need the international community to review the gacaca courts and the continued killing of survivors and to introduce a witness protection programme. Thirdly, a programme must be developed as a matter of urgency to collect and archive the testimonies of the widows before it is too late."
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SURF calls on International Action to Support Women Survivors in Rwanda for International Widows' Day (PDF: 32KB)