Highlight of Annonciata
Mukamugema, Rwanda
Her name is Annonciata
Mukamugema. For the last few years she has been representing the
survivor community in the area where she resides (Matyazo: District of
Huye) and therefore has been able to coordinate and direct necessary
funds to other survivors to help them rebuild their shattered lives and
give them hope.
She is a 45
year old woman who was made a widow by the 1994 Rwandan genocide she
was left with 4 children of her own and took in two more orphans into
her care.
Annonciata does
sewing to earn her living and support the children she was left with
after the genocide. She does her sewing from a small room attached to
the main building of the office of the Rwandan widows network (AVEGA)
in Butare and therefore is always there to welcome every widow that
comes to that place seeking for advice or any sort of assistance.
Because of her hard work and her devotion to the widows’ network in her
community, she was elected recently as the network representative for
the city of Butare which houses the headquarters of AVEGA for the whole
of the southern region in Rwanda.
She has
been elected in her community as a woman of integrity (which is known
as inyagamugayo in Rwanda) and therefore supports and works with the
newly established traditional courts known as GACACA in which crimes
committed during the genocide are tried and reconciliation is done
between the two parties.
Most
members of the widows network (AVEGA) from her community and the
neighboring villages believe that they would have been lost had they
not found her as she is the one who introduced most of them to the
network. Even the ones that had health issues that were caused by the
genocide found a confidant in her and were directed by her to find
proper health care facilities.
It was
because of her courage that she managed to continue trying to find a
better living for herself and continued borrowing her strength to other
survivors in the community so that they continue living and find hope.
Photo of Annonciata Mukamugema (far right) and AOWE Interns in Rwanda