WESTERN PROVINCE

RUBAVU — The District Education Officer, Mediatrice Mwangange, has urged teachers and parents to educate children on unity and reconciliation, which she said will help them grow into responsible adults.

In her massage to head teachers last week, Mwangange said that Rwandan youths should use their capacity to foster unity and reconciliation.

"The youth were used by the former leaders to carry out the 1994 Genocide due to their strength. They misused their youthful energy to do destructive things which has led most of them to prisons. This generation should therefore draw lessons from that [past] and dedicate their effort to reconstruct the country,” she said, adding that this cannot be achieved unless teachers educate and encourage children to remain united.

"Some of their parents still harbour the Genocide ideology, but with good education, children can even change their own parents and relatives,” she said.

The district, she added, was doing its best to educate children on unity through sponsoring and organising debates.

"We have in the past worked with the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission to bring together children from different schools to meet and debate on unity and reconciliation. We also organised sporting activities meant to unite them,” she said. 

Calling on head teachers to start unity and reconciliation clubs, Mwangange said the district will closely monitor and support those already in place and facilitate the clubs to reach out to other youth outside schools.

Paul Munyaneza, a student from Ecole de Science de Gisenyi, noted that such clubs were vital as they create a chance for students to share experiences and learn more about the country’s history in order to shape the future.

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