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Today, almost two-thirds of the population of Rwanda was born after the horrific genocide in 1994.
“They feel its effects, but have little knowledge of what caused it to happen,” says James Smith of Aegis Trust.
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Genocide tears families, communities and societies apart.
“It takes decades of reconciliation, peace- building and support to repair the damage done, and constant vigilance to ensure it does not happen again.”
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Central to ensuring it doesn’t happen again is the need to help people who have no concept of peace or how to plan to start to envision a future.
“The victims of genocide spent years focused on the minutes ahead of them relying on their wits to stay alive. Tomorrow, next week, next month never existed so there was no need to plan or work toward a better future.”
Since 2008, Aegis’ peace-building education program has reached thousands of young Rwandans, changing attitudes and behaviour among students and their communities.
Dr. James Smith joined a Conversation That Matters about working toward the prediction, prevention and ultimate elimination of genocide. Learn More about our guests career at careersthatmatter.ca
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