Rwanda Youth & Children's Testimonies

This collection contains 864 testimonies that were written in exercise books by students in Rwandan high schools between late 1999 and early 2000.  Each testimony depicts the first-hand account of a child’s experiences from the beginning of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda until the child was rescued.  All of the testimonies were collected from children who lived in the Gitarama Prefecture when the 1994 Rwanda genocide began following the downing of the plane carrying Rwandan President Habyarimana and President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi on the evening of 6th April 1994.  The testimonies paint a very vivid picture of how genocide was carried out, the places the children hid, and their means and location of escape.  Many describe how Tutsi and moderate Hutu property was looted or destroyed and include the names of the perpetrators and victims of the genocide.  The children also tell of the experiences they endured during their flight to safety and in the hands of genocide perpetrators.  The people who hid the children, including some of their family members, are revealed. In some testimonies, the children identify the challenges they have experienced in post-genocide Rwanda.