Honourable mention:
Ms Yolande Mukagasana (Rwanda/Belgium)
After training as a nurse, Ms Yolande Mukagasana (1954–) founded a small private
health centre in Kigali (Rwanda) where she served as a doctor. After the massacre of
her husband and three children, the destruction of her health centre and the loss of all
her belongings in 1994, she started all over again through the construction of a centre
for orphans that has become her new family, with twenty children. As a refugee in
Belgium since 1995, in 1999 she set up Nyamirambo Point d’Appui, a foundation for
the memory of genocide and for reconstruction in Rwanda, thus starting the important
work of making people aware of genocide, through writing, theatre, exhibitions and
conferences, particularly in schools in Rwanda, many European countries and Canada.
One of the main aims of her association is to educate people, youth in particular, in
human rights and cultural diversity and in peaceful coexistence.