Thirty years on from the Rwandan genocide, Amy Ní Riada speaks to one survivor and looks at how the country has dealt with what happened during 100 days of violence.
Thirty years on from the Rwanda n genocide, Amy Ní Riada speaks to one survivor and looks at how the country has dealt with what happened during 100 days of violence.
Mr Giraneza spent years physically recovering from his attack. After receiving machete blows to the head and hips, he spent 135 days in a coma followed by six years in a hospital. John met Marie-Jean after spending eight years as a street boy, surviving off of bin scraps. Those in the area who were working towards reconciliation efforts approached John to help build houses in a new village and Marie-Jean’s family were also building there at the time.
"When I learned whose family she was belonged to, I called it off. I said I would never go back to her," he says. However, as part of the therapy and prayer sessions offered to survivors, John learned the gospel of Zechariah, which preaches forgiveness. In John and Marie-Jean’s case it proved successful in reuniting the couple. Her family repented for the murder of his siblings and they went on to have four children together.At a commemoration event marking the 30th anniversary of the genocide, where 200 local people gathered to remember the one million men, women and children murdered, survivors stood up to share their stories.
After he finished speaking, another man asked if he could have the microphone. He proceeded to reveal that he was, in fact, one of the men who wielded a machete on that very day.
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