Healing after Genocide

[Amanda]

We work to stop and prevent genocide. But often we don't think about what comes after. How can a country heal after such a horrific event? How can you live next to the neighbors that killed your family? How do you heal when you've lost your entire family? Everything you owned? Grown up without parents? Were born from rape? Healing is no easy matter. Especially when the world turned its back.

One country where some people are finding ways to heal is Rwanda. The HPA itself (and Nerdfighters) participated in helping them heal when we sent videos of ourselves (in 2009) lighting candles in memory of the 15th anniversary of the genocide in support of Candles for Rwanda. It showed that we, the world, DO care. (There are many videos, but some people show up in this one and it is a great summary of what the campaign was about: http://www.youtube.com/user/Candles4Rwanda#p/a/u/1/tCao0SS555g)

But I'm writing this to share with you a great little video from BBC showing two men who have managed to forgive. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10905971 It puts a face to what happened, for both a man who did the killing and a man who lost his family. They are now friends. There are also related videos if you want to hear more about the current situation in Rwanda.

The people of Rwanda had terrible things happen, but don't think of them simply as victims. They are people with love and courage. They are living. They are healing. They have incredible strength and resilience. They are moving on with their lives while remembering those they lost. With love, even terrible things can be overcome. Some might say "candles don't help" but the love behind them does.

[Dorothy]

Thank you for the beautiful post. And lighting a candle can help focus thoughts and let others know that you have what happened on your mind. The more we know about what happened and the more we remember, the more likely we are to watch and be sure something similar doesn't happen again. The biggest tragedy of genocide is that its often ignored until too late.