It begann by night at the 6 April of 1994 and it ended in Mid of July in 1994. In 100 days between 500.000 and 1.000.000 children, woman and man where massacred. Today we know the dimension of this genocide, the cruelness and the brutality of the murders. The total number of victims is not as important as the fact, that we have to remember that there was a genocide. There was an attempt to eliminate Tutsis — men, women, and children — and to erase any memory of their existence."
But not only the slaughtered are victims also the survivors. In Rwanda rape was an element of the crime of genocide. Between 250,000 and 500,000 Rwandese women and girls had been raped. Many women were raped by men who knew they were HIV positive and it has been suggested that there were deliberate attempts to transmit the virus to Tutsi women and their families.
Millions of people feared for their lives during the 100 days and experienced murder, rape and massacres. The sight of corpses on the streets was part of people's everyday lives for weeks after the genocide. A large part of the Rwandan population has been traumatized since then.
By the end of the genocide, hundreds of thousands of children had been orphaned. The spreading of HIV, through the rape during the genocide made estimated more 160.000 children to orphans. Today, the latest estimates in 2009 suggest that approximately 10-15% of the Rwandan population are orphans. Of these, approximately 400,000 children live in child-rearing families.
In 2009, I visited various aid projects all over the country that tried to give the orphans a future. They were run by people from Rwanda, international aid organizations and private individuals from Europe. Often one person looked after more than 50 children. The children and young people tried to lead a "normal" life. Many talked about the horror they had experienced and how they missed their relatives.
The orphans often took on everyday tasks for everyone. Older children washed the little ones, everyone set the dinner table and washed the dishes. The schools were often outdoors and the children were taught in two groups, morning and evening.
