Post Genocide Education Fund
During the course of the summer of 2006, we (Dr. Samuel Totten, a genocide studies specialist based at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Mr. Rafiki Ubaldo, a freelance journalist and independent researcher of genocide studies and a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide who currently resides in Stockholm, Sweden) criss-crossed large swaths of Rwanda as we carried out a research that delved into Rwandan citizens' perspective of the gacaca process.
As we tramped up and down scores of dusty hillsides interviewing one survivor of the genocide after another, we kept coming across coming across bright and articulate young people who impressed us with their powerful insights. At the conclusion of such interviews, Totten would frequently ask such interviewees: "And so, are you a university student or a graduate of a university?" Repeatedly, we heard variations of such answers as:
- "No, because of the genocide I was never able to finish high school and because my parents were killed in the genocide, I must pay my own way in life and that is costly enough."
- "I was in college in 1994, but fled during the killing. My family lost everything and we are stillÉ well, there is no money for me to continue."
- "While I am still in high school, I do not plan to go to university as my mother is too poor to even consider asking her for such assistance."
It dawned on Totten that there must be many young people in every post-genocide society (e.g., Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Cambodia, East Timor) who are not only haunted by the horrors they were forced to witness but bereft of the funds needed to even begin, let alone complete, a university education.
Totten shared such thoughts with Ubaldo, and before we knew it we were engaged in a lively discussion about the fact that far too often those who have survived genocide are forgotten about by the international community, especially as new crises arise, be they man-made (genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, civil wars, terrorism) or a result of nature (e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes). Indeed, survivors of genocide are, more often than not, left in the ruins and devastation to fend for themselves. Due to being newly destitute, many are left without the means to carry on their past lives or to pursue an education that could possibly help them transform their lives in a way that would make them more satisfying and productive.
It was a simple step to creating the Post Genocide Education Fund.
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