Innocent Mushenyi

I was born in June, 1982 in Nyamata. Before the genocide, my parents used to work on the land with many cows. They did not go to university. In addition to three brothers, I had two sisters: one was a baby and the other was the second eldest after me. We all lived together in Nyamata.

One of my favorite memories as a child was when my father walked with me on the first day of school. I was six years old and we walked for about 1 km to get there. I also remember playing soccer with my friends. We used to make our soccer ball out of paper bags.

When the genocide began, I was with my family. The militia came with machetes and started hitting my parents and my sisters on the head; they died on the spot. I ran away and found a high tree near the Nyamata church, which I climbed up to hide myself. I was alone and very scared, but I stayed there for four months. The tree was close to the Nyamata orphanage and the children there saw me on the tree. Sometimes, I asked the director of the orphanage if I could stay with them but he said no. The other children had lived there since 1992, but the director did not take anyone in during genocide. A friend of mine who was working at the orphanage advised me to come out only at night because it was quiet and safe. So I climbed down at night to look for food that had been prepared for someone's breakfast. From my hiding place in the tree, I saw the militia with machetes kill adults, children and cows. Many times, I did not eat anything for a week, but some people I know went through a month without eating.

After four months, the RPF [the opposition forces] came around and told everyone to come outside because the war was over. I saw the soldiers and found out it was safe. So I came down from the tree and the soldiers took me to the Nyamata orphanage with many other children who survived. There were 200 orphans there during the genocide but many more came afterwards. My house was totally destroyed, and I have never seen the bodies of my family. They were buried in a mass grave where there were more than 50 bodies barely covered by the soil. The smell was very bad.

After the genocide, it was very hard for me to go on living without my parents. I kept remembering my parents and relatives for a long time, and it was emotionally difficult. Now, it is easier but I cannot forget what happened. I do not think about it all the time but I will always remember. I was reunited with my three brothers after the genocide in Nyamata. They had also survived by hiding. I was so happy when I saw my brothers. My brothers have just finished secondary school but we do not live together any more.

Though I had to stop going to school during the genocide for four months, I finished primary school in 1996, entered secondary school in 1997 and graduated in 2003. Before I had the chance to go to university, I was living at Gisimba Memorial Center, an orphanage in Kigali, but I had no job. I usually stayed inside the orphanage and tried to help people cook in the kitchen and work in the garden. We rotated orphanage chores.

I was accepted to Kigali Independent University in 2005 and, with ORI's help, I am studying law there. I will graduate in 2008. One reason I work hard at my studies is because most of the killers during the genocide were people who were uneducated. Once you study, you cannot kill others because you learn how to understand them.

In my spare time, I play soccer - nowadays, we use a real ball! I also watch films, go to my friends' houses, and try to improve my English by reading books.

If I meet a child without parents, I would advise that he or she should study because it is the most important thing in life. As long as you concentrate on studying, you do not keep thinking about the fact that you are an orphan. Also, it's the best way to get a job. If I had a chance to help some orphans, I would help them just as I get help from Orphans of Rwanda.