More than 30 members of the Mulindi Japan One Love Project have visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial to pay respect to the victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi. The project is a non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing mobility and independence to people with disabilities.

More than one million people were killed in the Genocide against the Tutsi and many of those became disabled due to their injuries, landmines as well as medical malpractice and accident. There are an estimated 800,000 people in Rwanda today who are disabled. The Mulindi Japan One Love Project was established in 1996 in order to help these people.

Their visit included a tour of the different exhibitions of the memorial, which tell the history of the Genocide against the Tutsi, genocides in other parts of the world, and the Children’s Room – a tribute to the hundreds of thousands of young people killed in 1994.

At the end of their visit, the team left messages saying that what happened was horrifying and should not happen again.

Emmanuel Gatera Rudasingwa, the founder of the Mulindi Japan One Love Project, said education should contribute to eradicating genocide ideology.

“The massacres that happened in the Genocide showed that there was no love among Rwandans. Rwandans were educated to hate each other because of their ethnicity, so they should also be educated how to love each other so that what happened does not happen again.”

Other members also said that love should guide Rwandans in their day to day lives. Mami Rudasingwa said:

“People should love each other. I am motivated to love my neighbours and people in general, and everybody should too. Let’s come together and fight genocide ideology.”