US-based Rwandans to open survivors’ centre in Bugesera

BUGESERA - A US-based Rwandan Genocide survivor and colleagues will tomorrow open a community centre to help youth survivors in Bugesera District improve their lives through educational and entrepreneurship training. Miracle Corners of the World (MCW), a New York-based nonprofit organisation in which Genocide survivor, Jacqueline Murekatete belongs, is behind the project. The delegation will participate in a special reception at the community centre in Kayenzi village, in Nyamata sector, where the goals and activities of the centre will be discussed with members of the community. “The mission of the community centre which we finished constructing last year is to help the youth in Bugesera, with a focus on Genocide orphans to better their lives though educational and entrepreneurship training,” Murekatete said in an e-mail to The New Times. Work on the community centre started in 2008. Murekatete and the group of people who contributed towards the centre arrived in the country on Monday this week. Jackson Vugayabagabo, the group’s Country Coordinator, says the community centre currently runs four programs. He disclosed that 56 youth are being trained on Rwandan traditional dance, 20 are learning English, 16 are doing tailoring, and eight are pursuing handicrafts. At the age of 9, MCW’s Murekatete survived the Genocide but lost her six siblings, parents, and most of her extended family. She was taken on by her uncle in the United States, where she founded MCW that has raised awareness about the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, and the crime of Genocide. Ends

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US-based Rwandans to open survivors’ centre in Bugesera