Stories - Helping survivors of genocide rebuild their lives

Mechanic

Mechanic was nine months pregnant in April 1994 when the Rwandan genocide began. Extremist Hutu militiamen arrived in her town and rounded up all the Tutsi. Mechanic was forced to watch as her husband was killed along with the other local men. Then, as members of the militia gang raped her, she went into labour. She gave birth lying on the ground, surrounded by jeering men in uniforms. The moment her baby emerged, the militiamen killed it with their machetes. Then they forced her fourteen-year-old son to rape her, and afterwards they killed him, too.

Mechanic is now HIV positive as a result of the events of April 1994. She has a surviving child, a little boy. After the genocide, when she realised she was ill, she went to her local garage and asked them to train her. “I needed a job, you see, to support my son. And that’s why my girlfriends call me Mechanic.”

Like so many women in Rwanda, Mechanic has not had time for self-pity. In common with most survivors, she would never describe herself as a victim. She is resourceful and makes the best of almost nothing. Across Rwanda, widows like Mechanic have formed themselves into self-governing communities where they raise livestock and grow crops for sale in the local market. They are self-reliant and share what they have.

Network for Africa, in partnership with a local Rwandan group, is creating a community education centre and health clinic where genocide widows like Mechanic can take classes at times that suit their needs. They will be offered a chance to learn vocational skills, nutrition, sexual and reproductive health, and micro-finance skills. They will also be offered classes in governance and civic participation and gender empowerment. Although there is no electricity in the district, the centre will have solar panels, meaning that people can study, meet and work after dark.