Delphine Mukamana

I was five years old when the genocide occurred. I had ten brothers and sisters, four of whom were killed then, as was my father. One memory I have of my father is that he liked to play with my ears-he said I had pretty ears like a cat.

When the genocide began, we were all at home together, except for my two older brothers. The morning after the President's plane was been shot down, people came to our house to announce that he was dead. We all left the house. I fled with my older sister, and my younger brother and sister. We spent the night hiding in the bush. My father had a friend who was Hutu who hid us in his home. What I always remember is when my father came to that house to see us. It was raining, but his face always comes back into my mind. He said 'My children, you must stay here, I can't do anything for you. Just be good and stay here. I don't know when we will see each other again. But you must stay here.' I don't know how they killed my four brothers and sisters. I didn't hear anything from them during or after the genocide.

After the genocide was over, I suffered so much at school. When other kids I studied with said things like 'Oh my father bought me this or that...my father's bringing me a present,' I remembered that I didn't have a father, and that he'd been murdered for no reason. I cried every time I remembered what had happened. We were living with my mother, but she's now sixty and she was sick, so she couldn't work, which meant that we barely ate.

My mother used to say to us 'You see, my children? I have nothing. I have no job. So you have to work hard at school, so that you can have wonderful futures.' We did the best we could. My favorite subject at school was biology. One good thing about school that we were all children together, not Hutus or Tutsis. I did everything possible to get good grades. Later, I went to the FAWE girl's high school and did well there too. I didn't have problems with other kids saying that I was a Tutsi: we just studied, and I met other orphans of the genocide who had problems like me, and we used to talk about what had happened to us. I always knew that school was important, because I have no one who can help me if I need anything. Anything I ever earn will be because I worked for it.

I am so happy to be able to attend university. I am studying computer science at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). To make progress, Rwanda needs more people who are knowledgeable about computers.

One problem with the schools in Rwanda is that the best schools are the ones that rich children go to. Here, for many people who finish secondary school and then don't go to university - it's like they've done nothing, they can't find a job. If I finish my university degree, I'll be able to get a job so I can help my family. And it's just an ambition, but I want to set up a big school, which could help orphans and children who don't have enough money to pay their school fees. I don't want to get married right after university. First I want to find a job, earn my living, buy myself a car and spoil my mother. She's lost so much. Poverty always torments me. But I think that with development, Rwanda is improving. I think one day it will be a rich country.