On Monday, March 24, 2014, Emmanuel Habimana, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide visited Harwich High School as part of his national tour on its 20th commemoration sponsored by World Outside My Shoes. He spoke to five groups of classes in the library, discussing his experiences before, during, and after the genocide. He gave us a sense of the buildup to the genocide during which there were many massacres and his family moved twice to try to find a safe area. Once it began, he escaped attacks by hiding different places and when he was found by soldiers in a school desk he pretended to be a Hutu taking on the identity of a family of former neighbors. He eventually walked alone to Zaire ending up in a camp there. After the genocide he was stuck in that camp for another year before returning to Kigali and being reunited with his surviving siblings. In the 20 years since he has attended school, graduated from university, entered law school, and co-produced a documentary about the orphans of the genocide called Komora: To Heal which we were able to view excerpts. Watch the trailer here or a video from one of the class presentations here. Thank you Emmanuel for visiting and sharing with us. This was an eye-opening experience for our students. 
After school, Emmanuel was interviewed by Heather Goldstone for The Point on WCAI. Check out the broadcast streamed here.Or watch a video of the broadcast here.
