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On 12th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, SURF Calls on Public Support for New Testimony, Counselling & Resource Centre
London – 6th April 2006
On the 12th Anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide, the UK-based Survivors Fund (SURF) called on public support to help its efforts to establish a Testimony, Counselling and Educational Resource Centre in Rwanda. The Centre has already been named Humura (meaning “calm” in kinyarwandan) and a site has been earmarked just 15 minutes outside Kigali at Nyanza Rebero, adjacent to a memorial site built by SURF.
SURF has already raised £50,000, half the estimated cost of the new Centre. It is now appealing to the public to help raise the additional funds to begin work on the Centre, which will include a testimony collection facility and archive, a counselling and recreational centre, educational resource centre and photo gallery.
Humura will operate besides the graves of victims of the genocide, many who died in the massacre at nearby l’Ecole Technique Officielle – recently featured in the film Shooting Dogs. All the more meaningful, as the Centre will provide a living testament to all that the victims and survivors of the genocide have endured, and will provide a vital place of refuge and sanctuary to survivors that are still dealing with the trauma of the genocide 12 years on.
Humura will preserve the memory of genocide by the recording of personal eyewitness experiences in the form of multi-media testimonies. The facts and lessons of pre-genocide life and of the genocide era will be made known, remembered and passed on in the hope of helping new generations create a better future for Rwanda and the world.
Survivors Fund Founder and Director Mary Kayitesi Blewitt, commented:
“Humura will provide a vital resource for young survivors still dealing with the trauma of the events of 1994 who through the Centre will be able to access critical counselling services. In addition, it will serve as incontestable proof of the genocide, today more important than ever as survivors increasingly fear the world will forget and lose interest in the genocide and their plight today.” She concluded: “Future generations will have access to the collective memory of survivors through Humura, which will forever serve as a living testimony to the crime that was committed against the entire human race.”
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On 12th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, SURF Calls on Public Support for New Testimony, Counselling & Resource Centre (PDF: 31KB)