Dear Survivor

Ever since in the human history, people tend to be close and even closer when they share something in common.  In this regards, we will see fans of the same football team come together so often that they end up by being friends for life.  Again, people coming from the same areas or who went to the same schools are easily acquainted, friends or business partners for life as well as spouses in some instances.

As long as I am concerned, after surviving the Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994, I see all the genocide survivors in Rwanda as sisters and brothers. Back to our childhood ages, the love shared between the classmates, cousins, friends and neighbors was absolutely so deep and sincere that everyone seems to have its nostalgia.  And considering the huge vacuum and gaps left by those we lost, killed during the genocide, with a never told good-bye, I came to understand that we only have each other to love and cherish.  

Therefore, I keep the desire to meet, to hear, to support a fellow genocide survivor with the sole objective of trying to understand what she/he is going through, the challenges and issues we share and hope to be the light in her/his darkness.  We have been forever united by our struggle and survivorship and this bond is real.

#DearSurvivor, whatever you go through today, don’t feel alone and don’t not give up to fully live your life, to be happy despite all the needs and lacks, enjoy every single day like if it was the last one.  Let’s live for us and for them.  Let’s remember their love and hope, their resilience and patience.  

#DearSurvivor, I very much know it is not always easy to live again after what we experienced.  After being on the list of people to kill, after being hunted and called from that list, after being beaten to death, After hiding in the fields, forests, ceilings and bushes, thirsty and hungry, after these rapes and tortures, after witnessing the slaughter of our loved ones, may we let ourselves live and live this second chance to the fullest.