Education

Valgas begins his story by telling his niece, Marlaine, about the first time that he realized that he was a refugee. He describes the hardships that he and his family went through because they were not welcomed in this foreign country. He also encourages her to continue her schooling, because in the past not everyone was given the right to education. He hopes that Marlaine will fight against anything that could cause another genocide, because he does not want Rwandese to be forced to live as refugees again.

Two young friends share stories about their pasts, and, in a twist, the storylistener comes to give advice to the storyteller. Albertine begins, wishing to tell her friend Violette about her father, an educated man, who would take children off the street and get them into schools. Many are now directors of primary schools. Sadly, he died in the genocide. Albertine became a single mother.

Samantha asks her aunt, Kabalesi Donatha , to tell the story of her life so far. She learns that, while the aunt’s parents loved her, they could not easily support her love for school. So she married, it was difficult and ended, and health problems followed. But Donatha found that her faith was a great source of advice to her, and she wishes to pass on this to her niece. Samantha puts her dilemmas squarely to her aunt—that the life of a young person is full of temptations, especially when the yearning in Rwanda is so much for life!

Stories For Hope created a forum for elders to inspire the youth; at least that’s what Judith and Nadia expected when they accepted to share their story. In this story however, the roles astonishingly reverse as an elder finds encouragement and inspiration from her niece and adopted child who tries to point out how children now play together in Rwanda, even as their own parents were once enemies.

Augustine, born in 1939, has much to tell Ignace about Rwanda before colonialism: the history of kings and how power transferred from one to another, how young people were treated differently by their mothers versus their fathers, and how they were joined in marriage. He recounts how some of the practices are thankfully outdated, like drowning unmarried, pregnant women, and how some of the practices celebrate values that are still positive like respect, and cooperation.