To mark Holocaust Memorial Day, Survivors Fund (SURF) has launched a new education microsite which conveys the untold stories of an array of UK-based survivors of the Rwandan Tutsi genocide through film.

The microsite features excerpts of interviews with an array of UK-based survivors, all of whom are playing an active role in raising awareness of the genocide and the situation of survivors today as part of SURF’s Speaking2Survivors project. Supplementing the interviews are a series of specially designed lesson plans, developed by SURF Education Coordinator, Andy Lawrence, a history teacher at Hampton School. The lesson plans have been concurrently launched on the Hodder Education website too.

The project is funded by the Young Roots programme of the Heritage Lottery Fund. Survivors Fund (SURF) facilitated for students from four schools: Hampton School in London, E.S.Culham in Oxford, Sandhurst Comprehensive in Reading and Bilton School in Rugby to meet with and interview UK-based Tutsi survivors of the Rwandan genocide about their lives before and after genocide, and experience during it, over the course of last year. The students filmed and then edited the interviews.

The project has been made possible due to the work of a number of people: Andy Lawrence, Drew Sutton, Shirley Murgraff, Jean Louis Mazimpaka, Elliott Tucker and Liam Dempsey and Ngaire Ackerley of lbdesign. 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.

We hope over the course of the coming year to add further film clips and educational resources to the site. So watch this space.