Irene Mizero spends most of his time traveling around the country preaching about reconciliation and talking about his own redemption.

The 35-year-old says the national identity of ‘Rwandannes’ has helped heal his wounds inflicted by a troubled history and gave him a sense of belonging and hope in Rwanda’s future.

Mizero and his siblings grew up in a relatively wealthy family, meaning they lacked almost nothing in their younger age.

"Before the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, we had a stable and wealthy family. My father was the mayor of the former Satinsyi town, while my mother was the director of CCDFP, which was in charge of social affairs and development in the same town,” Mizero recalled. 

Mizero was nine-years-old during the genocide against the Tutsi. Courtesy.

He added: "We wore shoes at school, Tigana (brand) to be specific, which was a big deal back then. We would have bread applied with honey and tea for breakfast before heading to school riding used tires.”

"Our parents loved us and provided all the necessary for us as children.” 

After school, which was at a stone’s throw from their home, Mizero recalled, he and his siblings would mostly slide on the trunk of a banana tree with other children from the neighbourhood.

But all that changed during the Genocide. He was nine at the time.

"What I can recall is that on April 6, we stayed indoors, no kid could get out,” he recollected. 

Even though he was still young and only in primary three he still remembers events of the time.

"As we were coming from the Sunday mass, we met a group of militia wearing banana leaves and shortly afterward I heard gunshots. When I asked, I was told that Tutsi who had sought refuge at Muvoma multipurpose hall were being murdered. I also remember parents and other grownups saying that the Tutsi were being hunted,” he said, with a pensive look. 

Liberating truth

It was both perplexing and distressing for the nine-year-old Mizero.  

After the Rwanda Patriotic Front liberated the country and stopped the Genocide against the Tutsi, his parents were arrested of their role in the slaughter.

Mizero was the oldest among their children and he effectively assumed the role of head of family. He was 11 when he started fending for his younger siblings, a boy and two girls.

The young Mizero had no idea why his parents had been incarcerated.

"Life was so challenging, I lost hope and hated the Government for having imprisoned my parents.”

Eventually he came to know the truth.

He learnt that both his parents took part in the Genocide.

"It was a shocker,” he said.

"It had never occurred to me that my parents had taken part in taking the lives of those they led, instead of saving them,” he said. "It was kind of liberating to know the truth but that did little to improve my life.”

Truth about his parents’ role in the killings came out during Gacaca courts, a community-based justice system inspired by Rwanda’s traditional justice system.

He was 17 when his parents admitted to their role in the Genocide, during Gacaca hearings. Subsequently his father was handed life sentence and his mother a 30-year jail term.

"You felt helpless and there was nothing you could do about it, it’s hard to digest.” he recollected.

Frustrated, despair kicked in and looked for solace in alcohol at a tender age.

"We were leading a miserable life and I couldn’t see the end of the tunnel,” he said. "Drinking gave me some sense of temporary peace.”

‘Healing is a process’

He felt angry at his parents and the more he thought about it the more he sought he was driven to the edge by alcohol.

He carried that bitterness for a while.

However, his life later took a different course thanks to what he calls government’s inclusive policies.

"The Government did not abandon us even as our parents had committed something so terrible,” he said.

"The Government paid my tuition fees right from secondary school,” he said. "The happened to other children as well, without any form of discrimination.”

"But my therapeutic process began when I attended Itorero ry’Igihugu at Nkumba (Burera District, Northern Province), where we learned about Rwanda’s history, as well as civic education,” he said.

The programme is attended by students awaiting to join university.

Mizero was awarded government scholarship and went to the then School of Finance and Banking (SFB) – which is now part of University of Rwanda – where he offered accounting.

"The scholarship was another major surprise, I couldn’t believe that a son of Genocide perpetrators was being taken care of by a government that stopped the Genocide,” he said.

As things started to look up for Mizero, and as he progressed through his healing journey, he began to realise that many other young people were struggling with the consequences of the Genocide against the Tutsi.

Helping others to heal

That would later inspire him to come up with something that could benefit young people still struggling to overcome challenges related to the country’s tragic past.

That’s when Mizero Care Foundation came to life. "There were still many young people around who were still stuck in the tragic history of our country and I felt I had a duty to help them.”

The organisation, he said, seeks to help restore hope for the youth and help them recover from wounds caused by the consequences of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.

One of their main areas of focus is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They offer therapy through compact groups whose members are given time to share personal experiences with one another and how best they could face their past.

It’s a sort of human psychotherapy and emotional treatment, he said. "I chose to use my own story to help others heal from the wounds inflicted on them by our shared dark history.”

Message to young people

Looking back, he says that understanding that Rwandans were always one people before they were divided along artificial ethnic lines – and ultimately plunged into the Genocide against the Tutsi 26 years ago – was a major factor in his own healing.

"Healing is a journey, and it begins when you accept to embrace hope and love others, and to live positively,” he said.

By the same token, he advised those struggling with problems to open up and tell their stories, and those who have healed to help others who are still wrestling with their past.

Asked about his advice to the Rwandan youth as the country commemorates the Genocide against the Tutsi for the 26th time, he said they should seek to gain a deeper understanding of the country’s history and commit to doing everything possible to ensure that Rwanda remains a united country, free of hate and genocide ideology.