Construction works on the monument at Nyanza Genocide Memorial Centre have been completed. The centre is home to remains of over 6,000 people killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The inauguration was attended by Henry Gaperi, the Director General of the Social Security Fund of Rwanda (SSFR)which financed the construction to the tune of Rwf10 million as part of its social corporate responsibility.

The event that took place on Wednesday was characterized by testimonies by people who survived the massacre at the Nyanza Hill and others who lost their loved ones at the site.

Recounting the painful memory during the inauguration of the gravestone, Chantal Mukampama narrated that in her family of six children, only two children survived.

"We were rounded up by the Interahamwe and brought to this place (Nyanza) to be killed. My four children and husband were killed. I fled with my baby strapped on my back,” she revealed.

She welcomed the idea of having names of their loved ones inscribed on the monument.

"To say that someone died is not enough, and the name never dies. I am going to call my friends to bring the names of their loved ones to be written on this stone,” she said.

Naphtali Atishakiye, who in charge of documentation at the memorial revealed that there are plans to construct a trauma counselling centre at the Kicukiro-based memorial site.

"Plans to construct the trauma counselling centre are in place but we already have counsellors who are working here” he said. 

A library has been set up at the memorial which Atishakiye explained as storage of research findings on the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. He estimated that 300 million is needed to complete the construction.

Nyanza Memorial Centre which hosted last year’s Genocide commemoration also hosts the offices of IBUKA, the umbrella body of Genocide survivors’ associations.

Ends