Rwanda : Witnesses to healing — Foreign students visit Rwanda

In a continuous quest to witness Rwanda’s rebuilding process- a group of university students from overseas this August 2012 visited the country.

The visiting students come from different countries including:  the United States of America, United Kingdom, Slovakia and Canada.

The students are here to experience life in a new democracy still healing from civil war and genocide, whose story has been told differently but with one similarity.”They are orphans and street kids who all lost their parents in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi when an estimate million people were killed in 100 days.”

They group paid a visit to the Ministry of Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama, where a law student at the University of Columbia in Canada, Kirsten Stefanik, said they decided to visit the country to learn from its history and its rebuilding process.

During the brief meeting Kagarama explained the country’s history and how the genocide was stopped.

On behalf of the group we are impressed to see that Rwanda has managed to build a functioning and strong judicial system, saying it was a major accomplishment that should not only be recognised in Africa but globally.

Stefanik said “I’m very excited about the justice system in Rwanda, especially the Gacaca system as it has played a key role in bringing about reconciliation and unity and providing justice at the same time.”

According to Mark Dempsey from the University of California before coming to Rwanda, the information they had about the country was based on books, noting that the visit has enabled them to understand facts on the ground.

Dempsey said: “ I have seen, I believe Rwanda is on the right track in as far as development is concerned because the country is developing despite the poor history it went through.”

“We have decided to they would encourage more students from California to visit Rwanda which he said would assist them to get best practices on good governance, peace, unity and reconciliation,” Stefanik said.