Rwanda 15th Genocide Commemoration

This was forwarded to me yesterday, might be of interest to some, please feel free to spread the word:

From: Steve Robinson, AEGIS Trust
Sent: 25 February 2009
FW: Rwanda 15th Commemoration

Part of Rwanda's national commemoration for the 15th Commemoration of the genocide will be lighting candles at the main stadium. In order to raise funds for the vulnerable via a website, we are hoping to use this event to attract donations from people all over the world, whilst at the same time providing a measure of information about the genocide.

We will also be asking celebrities to send a video of themselves lighting a candle, to join in the commemoration, which will be displayed on the main screen during the national ceremony. The website will be used to attract donations and will be linked to the websites of celebrities. Our website is: http://www.candlesforrwanda.org/

We are inviting people everywhere to donate a few pounds or dollars to each light a candle as part of the main ceremony which will be held in April for those who lost their lives in the genocide. The greater the number of people donating, the more candles we'll have - and we would like to see thousands lit at the stadium as a gesture of remembrance by people in the UK and around the world, to tell the survivors that they are not forgotten. A few pence from each donation will pay for the candle; more importantly, the rest will go to into a fund supporting widows and orphans whose families were murdered, thousands of whom, as you know - even 15 years on - remain destitute as a result of the genocide.

Francine, our young co-ordinator, looks after the Rwandan orphans and widows in our programme, and those who come to the Centre for support. She is an orphan herself who came through our programme – she now works full time with us and is trying to raise as much money with this programme as she can to ensure the vulnerable ones get the support they need.

Please visit http://www.candlesforrwanda.org/ for more information about the project, where you'll also find a short film featuring some of the survivors that it's designed to help, including Francine.

Please don’t hesitate to get back to me if you have any questions. If you could pass this on to as many people as possible, we would be so grateful, and I know Francine (and Theodore, the head of Ibuka – the umbrella organization for survivors) would appreciate it.

Would you be able to distribute this email as widely as possible so that many can access the website and raise awareness ?

With warmest regards

Steve

Steve Robinson
Rwanda Development Officer
Aegis Trust

[NB 2013: I don't think that link still works, but the video above is taken from Candles for Rwanda.]