A group of students and the staff of Mulindi Secondary School have visited Kigali Genocide Memorial to learn about the Genocide against the Tutsi as well as pay respects to the victims the Genocide.
Jean Claude Byensi, Headmaster of Mulindi Secondary School, said that their main intention to visit the memorial was to learn more about the history of the Genocide as well as to pay tribute to the victims.
“We have come here to show our students the history of Rwanda. They themselves said that they wanted to visit the memorial. In our every day lessons, we focus on unity and reconciliation and Ndi Umunyarwanda (We are Rwandan). We want them to do away with the ideology of ethnicity, and instead feel that they are Rwandans. Young people use social media and other tools that deniers might pass through to disseminate false information. But they should also use the same channels to fight it. Our students understand this because they are the ones who requested this visit.”
Jean Claude Rukaruza, a teacher at the school, said that education is one of the tools that was used to seed genocide ideology and it should be also given priority to teach peace and reconciliation and fight against genocide ideology.
“It is my first time to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial. I had the opportunity to learn about other genocide and mass atrocities that occurred elsewhere in the world. As a teacher, I think that education had been used as a tool to disseminate genocide ideology and therefore it should be used to fight against it. When our students grow up knowing that ethnicity is not valuable, our country will be in harmony.”
Jolly Hortence Mizero, an 18 year old Senior 4 student who studies computer science at Mulindi Secondary School, said their visit to the memorial was very productive as they got to see what they had learned in theory.
“It is not my first time to visit memorials in general, as I have once visited one in the Eastern Province. But I learned many things here as the place also contains information about other genocides that took place around the world. It will not be possible to remember things that we do not know. Youth participated in genocide on a large scale, that is why they should also spend their energy to fight against its ideology, despite deniers. We see cases of genocide ideology even in children who were born after genocide, meaning that they get it from parents, so we have much to do so that we can even change our parents.”
Mulindi Secondary School is located in Kigali and started in 1997 as ordinary level only. In 2008, they introduced advanced level with two combinations (computer science and accountancy) and now have 338 students.
