A group of students from St Paul International School accompanied by their teachers paid respect to the victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi during their visit at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. Saint Paul International School is a Catholic school of the Archdiocese of Kigali in Rwanda situated in Kimironko sector.
Silas Hakizimana, School’s Acting Principal said that the leadership of their school puts efforts in educating children how to fight the genocide ideology and inspire them to build a better future. Most of their students are under 18 years old which means none of them has experienced the Genocide. They visited the memorial in order to learn more from the history and how they can apply the lessons out of it.
During their visit, students toured the memorial exhibitions and got the opportunity to visit the Children’s Room which is dedicated to the memory of children killed in the Genocide against the Tutsi. This section showed them how dreams of a generation were stolen during genocide. They also laid a wreath on a mass grave and observed a minute of silence to remember those killed in the Genocide against the Tutsi.
After touring the memorial site, students expressed their impressions on how they were saddened by our bitter history. They said that they will cover the gap left by children and young people whose dreams were stolen by genocidaires by contributing in building a better and peaceful Rwanda.
A message left by one of the students Tons Alline:
“Visiting this memorial enabled me to know how bad Genocide is. I was saddened by children and their dreams that genocide took away from Rwanda. This visit inspired me to do all my best to fight against genocide. As young Rwandans, we have to make those lost dreams come true, and achieve them for them”.
Silas Hakizimana thanked the memorial for hosting and teaching them.
“On behalf of Saint Paul International School community, we extend our thanksgiving to Kigali Genocide Memorial to give chance to our students and teachers to honor the memory of victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. We have known more about the Rwandan history and more about the origin of the Genocide in Rwanda. We have learned that the good governance is the major pillar in fighting Genocide and its Ideology”.
