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.

Survivors Fund (SURF) has been involved in marking the commemoration in a variety of ways. Our Co-Chair, Liliane Umubyeyi, was interviewed for a film that will be screened at the national event at the Guildhall later today. Our trustee, Jean Louis Mazimpaka, was interviewed for a podcast for the Holocaust Memorial Day website.

Andy Lawrence, a teacher from Hampton School, and the education coordinator for SURF, also developed a lesson plan to be used for the theme of HMD this year, A Legacy of Hope.  Further resources are available from the new SURF education blog that Andy has developed with our webmaster, Liam Dempsey, more about which on a later post.

SURF Founder, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt OBE, spoke at the Brent Council HMD ceremony, and I have been organising the Tower Hamlets HMD programme – including the staging of the SURF exhibition, Heroes Of Our Time, with photos by Andrew Sutton.

The Holocaust ended 65 years ago, and the world then said “never again’. Less than 40 years later, one million Tutsis and a number of moderate Hutus were killed in one hundred days during the Rwandan genocide. That is why we must remember.

You can show your support by lighting a virtual candle of remembrance.

Thank you.

Since our establishment, SURF has always ensured that survivors are represented on our Board of Trustees. At present, we have three remarkable survivors that give voluntarily of their time to provide guidance and governance of our work. As well, all three undertake vital advocacay and awareness-raising work helping SURF to inform and educate more people about the genocide and the situation of survivors today. Whether speaking to schools, or at public commemorations marking the anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, this is a vital contribution to our work.

Jean Louis Mazimpaka, whose story was featured in The Guardian this weekend, is one of our trustees as well as the founder of the Hope Survivors Foundation (HSF), a UK-based organisation established to provide greater support to UK survivors. Liliane Umubyeyi is our Co-Chair, and was recognised for her work with an award of the Cosmopolitan Ultimate Woman of the Year. Jeannette Kagabo has represented SURF at a number of high-profile events, including the national event of Holocaust Memorial Day.

The challenge ahead for SURF, and our partner HSF, is to provide more systematic support to survivors in the UK through access to mental health and legal aid services in particular. To this end, SURF will be working to raise funding over the year ahead, to ensure that the estimated 2,000 Rwandan survivors in the UK receive the support that they still critically need.

SURF’s Founder, Mary Kayitesi Blewitt, appeared on GRITtv with Laura Flanders to talk about the importance of securing justice for survivors in Rwanda in discussion with the award-winning filmmaker, Anne Aghion. Anne’s most recent film is My Neighbour, My Killer – an emotional journal for co-existence in Rwanda. 

SURF’s Co-Chair, Liliane Umubyeyi, and myself were interviewed last night on Dubai’s Nightline with James Piecowye.  As Liliane raises in her interview, it is still very difficult for survivors to speak about their personal experiences just 15 years after the genocide. Thus, survivors like Liliane, and SURF Trustee, Jean Louis Mazimpaka, who will feature in the Guardian’s Experience series next month, are even more critical to conveying to the wider public the realities for survivors who may not be able to raise their voice themselves. For that, I for one am grateful.