Editor, RE: “Actress Umuhire hits the limelight on global stage” (The New Times, July 13). What a wonderful feeling it was for me to read that a Rwandan won the Best Actress Award at the 52nd edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF)! Congratulations Eliane Umuhire, you have done Rwanda proud. As Umuhire said, participation at KVIFF was “an opportunity of sharing our story of overcoming grief and strife as a whole nation”. But winning glory was surely the icing on the cake. The beauty of Rwanda lies not just in its verdant hills and scenic lakes, but also in its beautiful women who were subjected to so much brutality and trauma during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Women, who, despite all odds, have come out to assert themselves and to prove to the world that they are second to none. In the words of President Paul Kagame, we cannot move the clock back nor can we undo the harm caused, but we have the power to determine the future and to ensure that what happened never happens again. “Birds Are Singing in Kigali” is one great initiative to ensure that what happened during those dark days (1994 Genocide against the Tutsi) never happens again. By the grace of God, birds will sing not only in Kigali but throughout the length and breadth of this beautiful Land of a Thousand Hills. Clarence Fernandes
