Survivors Fund (SURF) along with its partner organisations strives to raise awareness of the genocide itself, the history leading up to it and the situation of survivors in Rwanda itself. Genocide denial is a worrying trend – though sadly one that parallels Holocaust denial.

The effect of genocide denial is stark for survivors. It is a  negation of what they have experienced, and what they have lost. It can lead to trauma, as well as result in great anxiety and insecurity. This is particularly true over the period of the anniversary of the genocide, from April to July.

Insecurity for survivors has been heightened recently due to ongoing reports of genocidaires that have still to be brought to justice, many which have found sanctuary in Europe. This coupled with the ongoing neglect of aid agencies to support survivors,  the mismanagement of funding from FARG intended for survivors, and the absence of an apology from religious authorities involved in the genocide, in particular the Church.

Survivors Fund (SURF) continues to work to address these issues, amongst the many that effect survivors. The challenges are as great as ever, but with your ongoing support we may one day realise our vision: a world where the rights and dignity of survivors are respected.

This was developed by a group from Project Umubano, the two-week international social action programme of  the UK Conservative Party. This year a new group will be working on developing a Leadership and Communications Programme for SURF’s partner organisations.

The impact of the project has extended beyond just the two weeks of the visit, and the excellent Graduate Career Development Guide that was published. Over the last year, SURF has developed an Education into Employment Programme, under the leadership of Maia Gedde.

In partnership with AERG (Student Association of Survivors of the Genocide), and GAERG (Graduated Student Association of Survivors of the Genocide) the Education into Employment Programme covers the following areas:

1. English-language classes: Classes for 100 students began this week at ULK and INILAK for SURF sponsored students and AERG members, and plans are underway to scale up the classes to more AERG students at more universities.
2. Mentoring: a pilot programme is to be launched in October pairing students with professionals (from GAERG) and ex-pats, to provide mentoring over a 3 month period with sessions once a week.
3. SIT (School for International Training): a cultural exchange is planned for later this year with students being paired with SIT students from America.
4. IT Training: computers (purchased through funding from INSPIRE!africa and The Funding Network) are soon to be allocated to AERG chapters which will then set up IT Centres at their universities to provide IT training opportunities for their members, and develop the Centres into income-generating activities.
5. Careers Newsletter: the first newsletter of its kind with news and opportunities in the job market for graduates is to be launched with the Rwanda Development Board.

There are plans to develop an entrepreneurship programme as well. This work will be taken forward by Catherine Russell over the next three months. An excellent project officer (Albert Gasake) has been appointed at AERG to lead on the work too, made possible through funding from the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust.

We are hopeful that the forthcoming Project Umubano group will deliver as great a legacy on the Leadership and Communications Programme this year.

Subscribe to the blog to keep posted on how that develops.

During my current visit to Rwanda, I have been working on several reports to donors.

One report in particular that I wish to highlight, is that which we submitted to Comic Relief on the work of IBUKA and AVEGA Western Region (AWR), which have received funding through SURF for a capacity-building project.

The grant for AWR, which represents widows of the genocide out of its base in Cyangugu, has been transformative; enabling the organisation to deliver support to, and advocate for, 3,467 genocide widows and over 10,000 of their dependents.

The office of AWR reopened in 2008 as a result of the grant, and the legacy of the project is a network of self-sufficient associations of widows which have established successful income-generating activities. One  example is ingoro y’urukundo (meaning “house of love”) in Uwinteko village in Mururu sector of Rusizi district.

Mukabucyana Berte (centre in black tshirt) with members of ingoro y’urukundo and SURF Program Manager, Joram Sebatware (centre back)

“Before everybody was on their own,” Mukabucyana Berte, Coordinator of ingoro y’urukundo, told us during our visit to AWR to collate the report to Comic Relief:

“We hardly had anything to keep our life going. But now you can see for yourself. Everybody looks smart and healthy. All this is because of our mother AVEGA which facilitated us to form this association, trained us on how to form and manage income generating projects, after which they helped us to get capital which enabled us to start business. We sell agricultural products, and out of the interest that we have got, we established a hair salon. From all this we get money for the members to afford their household needs. There is no way we can satisfactorily thank AVEGA, for all that they have done for us.”

As AVEGA celebrated this weekend its 15th Anniversary, its work is proving to be more critical than ever in supporting widows of the genocide, many which are ageing. SURF has the easy task, of reporting on such exemplary work!

We will be uploading to the website a more user-friendly version (in html) next week.

The report highlights our successes over the past year, as well as the challenges ahead for SURF, our partner organisations, and the survivors of the Rwandan genocide which we are constituted to support. We have strived to be as honest as possible about our work, as well as transparent about the state of our finances.

The report is only as useful as you – our supporters – find it. So please do not hesitate to email me with any feedback. We will be certain then to factor that in to how we report on our work in future years.

What always frustrates me about the Annual Report, is that by the time it is approved it is already dated. However, an important component of the report is our financial statement, the audit of which is a rigorous process, and only this month has been completed. I will be posting our full audited accounts here in due course.

So thank you all for your ongoing support, and for making all of the work we report possible!

Our largest funder in 2009 was the Charities Advisory Trust which, through its remarkable Good Gifts Catalogue initiative, enabled this work. Searching through our film archive, I discovered this report on the project from the BBC in 2005, which though dated highlights how the programme continues to run to this day

Click here to view the embedded video.

Over the past year, we have been able to provide more livestock to survivors of the genocide than ever before. Over 1,000 goats and nearly 10,000 chickens were distributed (as well as 2 prize bulls!) through our partners, including AVEGA Agahozo, AOCM and Solace Ministries. This has helped to boost the standard of living, build confidence and self esteem, and reduce poverty and vulnerability amongst survivors.

I felt isolated, desperate and trapped. I seemed to be the only person who understood what had happened in Rwanda, but no one wanted to hear me. I visited NGOs working in Rwanda and the UK Department for International Development, pleading for funds to be channelled to survivors. As had happened in Rwanda, I was informed politely that funds were already committed to the country, and with the emergency period coming to an end, there were no more earmarked for it.

With a letter from SURF published in today’s International Herald Tribune, our pleading continues.

In addition, the new Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, recently stated that he has “put DFID staff on notice now, that every time I visit our work overseas I’m going to be asking how are you engaging with local people and civil society, as well as their government?”

We hope that this will result in future funding from DFID Rwanda being channelled directly to survivors, rather than exclusively to Government.

Andrew Mitchell in his review of Linda Polman’s War Games, emphasises that “we need to face up to the difficult issues that Polman raises” which includes the mistakes made in the immediate aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, when more international funding was channelled to the perpetrators of the genocide than to the survivors.

An excellent overview of the international development landscape in Rwanda published by the Institute for Philanthropy this week, features the work of SURF partner AVEGA, and concludes:

As a brief visitor to the country it is all too easy to see the huge strides that the nation has taken since 1994 as evidence of reconciliation, but as with so much in Rwanda – still waters run deep. Non-violent coexistence is not the same as peace: tensions may go unexpressed violently but they are still very real.

Having now worked in Rwanda for sixteen years, SURF is no brief visitor to the country. However, we are still learning how deep the still waters run – as we hope international funders do so too.

On our current project with UK-based survivors and schools, we have been privileged to have Shirley Murgraff introducing sessions on Oral History, sharing her experience of interviewing Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg’s USC Shoah Foundation Institute. Her contribution, as well as further information on the project was featured in an article by Pete Horton in the Rugby Advertiser this week (click below to enlarge).

Rebecca Tinsley of Waging Peace, a vital supporter of SURF, writes a strong article on Darfur’s invisible killing fields, demonstrating that the international community has failed to learn the lessons from their inaction that allowed the Rwandan genocide.

Agnes Grunwald-Spier, a trustee of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and another supporter of SURF has written The Other Schindlers, Why Some People Chose To Save Jews in the Holocaust. This focuses on the role of those that chose not to remain as bystanders in the Holocaust, an area of enquiry that is reflected in The Rwandan Rescuers’ Project too.

SURF has been fortunate to benefit from support from a number of organisations working with Holocaust survivors, in particular the Holocaust Educational Trust and the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre.

June 12th is Anne Frank Day, Anne Frank’s Birthday, which this year marks the extraordinary life of Anne’s father Otto Frank and how one person can make a difference.  The Anne Frank Trust has made available an Anne Frank Day 2010 Assembly to teachers to highlight the commemoration.

July 5th is Speaking2Survivors, an event that we hope will mark the beginning of an annual commemoration of the end of the Rwandan genocide to focus attention on the situation of survivors today. To learn more about that initiative, then please visit here.

The work has been made possible due to a grant from the Young Roots grant programme, of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and is enabling SURF to preserve the vital oral history of UK-based survivors for posterity as well as for future education work in other schools.

As the genocide is still so recent, many survivors are unable to speak publicly about their experiences due to the trauma that results from evoking the memories of that time. However, due to their commitment to share their story with more young people, the concept of the project evolved.

Following the final workshop in Bracknell next month, a concluding event is to be staged on July 5th with all the participants in the programme, which will bring together the survivors whose interviews have been recorded, as well as the students that filmed them, marking the launch of a new online archive with highlights from the interviews.

The event will be conjoined with a student conference, Speaking2Survivors, convened by Hampton School, which will present an opportunity for students from schools across the UK to submit questions to the survivors, along with questions from a number of dignitaries, to learn more about and from their experience. To learn more, then email a.lawrence(at)hamptonschool.co.uk or ensure to check the website here:

The project has been made possible due to the work of SURF education coordinator, Andy Lawrence, and Drew Sutton, Shirley Murgraff, Jean Louis Mazimpaka and Elliott Tucker. However, it is down to the generosity of the participating survivors that have given their time and experience, as well as the students and teachers of the participating schools, and the funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, for which we are truly grateful.

Many of the visitors are from educational institutions, searching for statistics on the genocide. Others are supporters, wanting an update on our work.

We are fortunate to have a great communications design consultancy (lbdesign) which developed our original website, and continues to work with us to improve it.

With the help of lbdesign, SURF’s online presence now extends beyond our own website, encompassing a donation page through a facebook page to a youtube channel. Some will receive automatic notification of this blog post through our twitter account, others through our RSS Feed.

However, we are always looking for more feedback from you, our visitors and supporters. So if you do have any ideas of what more you would like to see on the site, or anything that you would like us to do differently, or any new virtual places on which you would like to see SURF appear, then please do email our administrator, Flavia, to let us know.

Thank you!

The lecture was followed by a panel discussion in which SURF Founder, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt, offered a powerful reflection on the issue:

Forgiveness without justice is a betrayal of my family. Forgiveness is between me and my God. It is not a matter of national policy.

Individuals who have to deal with the aftermath of horrendous atrocities should not also be robbed of their independence to decide when to forgive or not.

Forced forgiveness is insensitive, intrusive and morally isolating. Those who choose not to subscribe to society’s pressure to comply and be seen to forgive should be given that right to do so.

Violence can and is justified – not in revenge, but in defence. That defence for survivors is ever necessary today, as perpetrators continue and try finish what they almost succeeded in doing in 1994.

The full text of Mary’s address is available here: Forgiveness Presentation.

The lecture was an initiative of The Forgiveness Project, in which Mary’s story is featured alongside that of Archbishop Tutu.

The Independent newspaper also featured a report on the event.