Rwanda: 'Never again'

You know what it’s like – you read a book, or you see a film, based on a true story, yet it doesn’t seem quite real. It can’t be – the events are sometimes just too horrific; the people are just too extraordinary to be believed. You imagine the author or film-maker must have used journalistic licence to embellish their creations. Real life just can’t be like that. Can it?

So it was that we met some extraordinary women in Rwanda whose relatives were killed in the 1994 genocide. 

One such woman is Marie. We had read about SOS mother Marie in a book Women’s Lives published by SOS Hermann Gmeiner Academy in 2003. Marie’s husband was slaughtered. He’d worked with SOS Children before the genocide erupted. He and Marie hadn’t had children. Becoming an SOS mother was the way Marie rebuilt her life. 

We met Marie at the SOS Children village in Kigali. On video, she painfully recalls events that she witnessed at first hand, and describes what caring for her family of 10 orphans now means to her.

Another such woman is Rosette, who was 14 when her parents, and so many of her extended family, were killed in the genocide. Since then, Rosette has dedicated her life to reconciling Rwandans, and helping to take the country forward into what is fast becoming one of Africa’s more stable and economically developed nations. 

We filmed in a Kigali memorial museum which Rosette helped to establish. It has the motto: ‘Never again’.

During our visit to Rwanda we came to realise that, back in our western world, we ignorantly associate Rwanda only with genocide. Thanks to people like Marie and Rosette, Rwandans are gradually, and determinedly, moving on. 

Marie, Rosette… they are extraordinary yet real people, with extraordinary yet real lives – books and films could not do them justice.

'Our Africa'

‘Our Africa’ is an ambitious project which sets out to let children across Africa film their lives the way they see them. Our teams have been travelling throughout Africa to capture children’s thoughts, opinions and ideas to present a new perspective on Africa through their own eyes.

In ‘Our Africa’, you can see children talk about what matters most to them – from games they play; to aspirations they have for jobs; to how they would like things changed fundamentally in their societies.Here, we’ve captured some of the behind-the-scenes moments and experiences that contributed to the ‘Making of Our Africa’.