When the killings started in Sahera, a small village in the outskirts of Huye, a town in southern Rwanda in April 1994, genocidaire militias broke into the home of Rose Mukamazimpaka before killing her entire family including her husband and their seven children.
“What I do remember is when the attackers broke into our house it was raining and all houses belonging to Tutsi families were set on fire ” says Mukamazimpaka 89 now living in an established hostel built in Mukura, another village a few kilometers away from her native home.
Mukamazimpaka managed to escape through a window as the militia killed her family.
She hid in neighboring banana plantations for some few days before one of her former Hutu neighbors accepted to hide her in return for money.
Shortly after the defeat of the then government by the former rebel group and current ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) in July 1994, genocide survivor Mukamazimpaka returned to her village but her home was completely demolished by Mathias Hishamunda, one of her neighbors, accused of participating in the killing of all her family members.
Nowadays, Mukamazimpaka remembers the hard times in the wake of the genocide when she was left alone at home and she couldn’t do anything by herself.
A long overdue move to help elderly genocide survivors who suffered from violence during this extermination plan in 1994 is currently being supported by Rwandan First Lady Jeannette Kagame in a bid to give them a decent life, helping them rise from the sorrow and pain of this monumental tragedy.
The residents in these hostels known as “Impinganzima” (a place to relax) are between 65 and 90 years of age.
Through the support by the Rwandan First Lady, modern hostels which are have been built for them in selected districts of Huye, Nyanza , Kamonyi – all in the South, Bugesera and Kayonza to the East, and Rulindo in the North.
These genocide survivors elderly women and men who are commonly known as ‘Intwaza’ (Heros), are grouped in a fully furnished homes.
Each individual has their own bedroom stocked with all they need – from clothing to body lotions.
They eat from the same table, share the same living room and watch the same television.
According to AVEGA-AGAHOZO, 80 percent of its 25,000 members suffered sexual abuse during the genocide.
Through this support, a platform for genocide widows has been established immediately after the genocide, with currently over 19,000 elderly genocide survivors across the country; 271 are men.
All the women and men have no single person left in their families.
Everyone was wiped out by the rampaging genocide militia.
Many of the women are only now recovering from some of the bodily wounds sustained during the horrific days of 1994.
During genocide, sexual violence was used to humiliate, degrade and violate women during the 6 April to 16 July 1994 mass killings.
In many cases, the violence was meted out before, during or after the women had witnessed the killing of their loved ones.
Although some still have no homes, the lives of more than 200 of them have been transformed – thanks to the most powerful woman in Rwanda; the First Lady Jeannette Kagame.
AVEGA-AGAHOZO has now turned into a refuge for some of these women.
Local observers say organisations like Avega have helped genocide widows, who form a significant percentage of survivors because the genocidaires targeted mainly men and boys, to find their feet.
While some women were gang-raped, others were violated using sharpened objects, resulting in extensive damage to their reproductive systems.
According to Avega, the widows and orphans who survived the genocide bear the burden of the atrocities committed.
Having witnessed or suffered extreme violence, many of them have a very negative attitude towards life.
But the situation has since changed after Rwandan First Lady Jeannette Kagame and Unity Club, an organization of women leaders or spouses of leaders started a philanthropy project to build homes for elderly genocide survivors who, in most cases were left with no-one to call a relative who would take care of them.
“The genocide took away all my children and husband, but I am thankful to have someone who cares” says Mukamazimpaka, referring to Mrs. Kagame.
CU/abj/APA