PEPAPS donates food to genocide survivors

HUYE- Staff of the Water and Sanitation Project in the Southern Province, PEPAPS, on Friday, donated foodstuffs worth Rwf2.3m to 30 families of Genocide survivors in Maraba Sector, Huye District. The items included maize flour, rice, beans sugar and cooking oil, among others. The gesture was meant to reach out to survivors and join them in commemorating the 1994 Genocide, according to Gorette Buhiga, the project’s coordinator. Beneficiaries welcomed the donation. “We are very pleased because life here was very difficult, but we now see a brighter future. This gesture gives us hope,” said Vedaste Rwamasirabo, one of the beneficiaries. Earlier, PEPAPS workers had visited Murambi Genocide Memorial Site, in Nyamagabe District, to pay their respects to the thousands of Genocide victims buried there. The group laid wreaths on the grave of the victims and donated Rwf200,000 towards the maintenance of the site. Speaking to The New Times shortly after touring the site, Buhiga noted that putting up of memorial sites was a good step towards preserving the truth about the genocide. “When visiting this site, you come to realise how brutal the genocide was”, she observed. Michel Goffin, a technical officer with the project, could not hide his emotions after the tour. “It is horrible, anxious and miserable. For me, what I saw is unspeakable. I think it is everyone’s duty to remember what happened and take appropriate measures which will ensure that the Genocide never happens again,” Goffin said. In 1994, over 50, 000 Tutsis who sought refuge at Murambi were brutally killed by Interahamwe militias . Most people who were killed at this site had sought refuge after being assured of security by their leaders. Ends

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PEPAPS donates food to genocide survivors