Context

The genocide perpetrated against the Tutsis has created turmoil throughout the country; over one million dead, thousands of missing persons, crimes long gone unpunished.
Children separated from their families may be abandoned at the frontiers, refugees in neighbouring countries, or sheltered by other families remaining in Rwanda. Some of these children are now re-appearing and looking for their family origins.

The challenge

“In Rwanda”, there is a widespread belief that any missing person not seen for some time is necessarily deceased; however, many parents are still searching for children of whom there is no trace, and many young people who were too young when separated from their parents do not even know their own name and need help to discover their origins and construct their identity.

Front page

En Belgique - Au Rwanda - Générale

Jul 26 2021

Jérôme Akayezu died unexpectedly

Jul 22 2021

RWANDA : DISAPPEARANCES AND FORGOTTEN TRAGEDIES

Oct 14 2020

CCMES Rwanda celebrates the first marriage of a beneficiary

Vestine Uwimana

Aug 22 2020

Ordinary General Assembly of CCMES Belgique

Nov 7 2019

Training of beneficiaries on income-generating activities

in Rubavu , Rwanda

Oct 17 2019

Cheerfulness in CCMES

An Impassioned Outcry FROM A HOPEFUL MOTHER

20 YEARS LATER : Documentary by Mukamulindwa Béatrice

Aims

To accompany

Children and families throughout their quest regardless of its outcome.

To reunite

Children and their families.

To corroborate

Useful information to further search actions.

To track down

Children reported missing at the time, scattered throughout the Rwanda hill-country, as well as elsewhere in Africa and all over the world.

To find

All the families remaining without news of their children reported missing.

Actions

To assist

Any person, parent or child, contacting the CCMES in Rwanda, and looking for their family is assisted and supported by the CCMES. Meetings and excursions are regularly organised to combat isolation and to build relationships.
Occasionally, and when necessary, the CCMES provides individual follow-up.

To gather testimonials

Explain the importance of testimonials.
Explain the duties of volunteers, and their achievements.
The benefits of the achievements: a film
: film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP-bKX_h6Lo
and
a booklet of testimonials
; https://lirenligne.net/detail-oeuvre-a-decouvrir/Anonyme/RETISSER%20L%27ESPOIR/5967.

Contact CCMES Belgium to obtain our printed booklet of testimonials.

To train volunteers

To find the missing children, the search must be advertised from one hill to the next, and from one family to another, firstly in Rwanda, but also throughout the world. It is also necessary to know how to communicate with people suffering from psychological traumas. CCMES ensures volunteers receive coaching on how to empathise with victims and to help heal the effects of trauma, and then mobilises trained volunteers to connect with communities, to highlight the issue of lost children, to gather testimonials, and to assist families in their search as well as the children found.

To raise awareness

Often in good faith, people cannot understand how parents continue to hope that children reporting missing long ago might still be alive.
To address this, the CCMES organises awareness campaigns in Belgium and in Rwanda to highlight the issue of children who went missing during the war and the genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda. This is a vital contribution to mobilising people to support this mission, especially as Rwandan children may be scattered throughout the world. Heightened awareness is essential to trace information that can lead to reunited families.
CCMES also focusses attention on the impossibility of closure for families with missing children, as well as on the identity issues faced by missing children who return to Rwanda, often with no access to their past.
In these awareness campaigns, the CCMES sometimes works in partnership with other associations and organisations.

Activities

In Rwanda

2012-2013 2014 2015 - 2016 - 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

In Belgium

2013 2014 2015 - 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

How to support the activities of the CCMES

CCMES-Belgique is a Belgian non-profit organisation that:

Context

Origins

The challenge

Front page

An Impassioned Outcry FROM A HOPEFUL MOTHER

Aims

Actions

To assist

To gather testimonials

To train volunteers

To raise awareness

Emima NYIRABAZUNGU

Emima was born in the then Rwamatamu commune in the Nyabinaga sector of the former Kibuye prefecture. This is now the Mushungo village in the Nyarusange division of the Kilimbi sector of the Nyamasheke district.

Elina NTAKABABARO

Elina was born in the then Rwamatamu commune in the Nyabinaga sector of the former Kibuye prefecture. This is now the Mushungo village in the Nyarusange division of the Kilimbi sector of the Nyamasheke district.

Béata UWAMAHORO

Béata is a young woman who lives in the village of Rugerigeri, in the Kimpundu division of the Kilimbi sector of the Nyamasheke district. Formerly, this was the Gatare commune in the Cyangugu prefecture.

Damalise KALIZA

Kaliza was born in the then Rwamatamu commune in the Nyabinaga sector of the former Kibuye prefecture. This is now the Mushungo village in Nyarusange division of the Kilimbi sector of the Nyamasheke district.

Béatrice MUKAMULINDWA

I am looking for my three missing children during the 1994 genocide.

Béatrice MUKAMUDODO

I was married and had five children. We lost track of two children in the parish of Karama in Butare, a place where we had gone to seek for protection.

Berthe KAMANYANA

My name is Kamanyana Berthe. At the time of the genocide, I lived in Kigali and that is where I currently live. We were a large family of 6 children. Our oldest was 21 years old.

BAHINTEGE Euphrasie

Euphrasie was born in what used to be the Rwamatamu commune, in the Nyabinaga sector of the former Kibuye prefecture. Nowadays, this is the Giseke village in the Muhororo division of the Kilimbi sector of the Nyamasheke district.

Dancille KANAKUZE

Dancille was born in the former Rwamatamu commune in the Nyabinaga sector. This is now the Kilimbi sector in the Nyamasheke district.

Sabine Amata MUKUNDWA

My name is Mukundwa Amata Sabine. I come from Butare, in a place called Kiruhura, today the small center of Kinkanga. When the genocide started, I was with Mom, dad was not with us. We left the house to take refuge at a neighbor’s house.

Odile MUGABE

My name is Odile MUGABE. I am 12 years old when the genocide occurs in 1994. On May 27, more exactly, my mother and our two twins are killed. I become almost stupid. That’s when my older sister and I take the path of wandering and exile.

Jean d’Amour NKIRANUYE

I was born in Muhima and I am 24 years old. When the genocide began, I was 6 years old. We lived in Muhima in a family of 5 children, with my mother and father.

HAKIZIMANA Jean-Claude

My name is Hakizimana Jean-Claude; not knowing my date of birth at the time, I stated that I was born in 1992; until now it’s my official birth date. But when I returned to Rwanda, my mother told me that I was born in 1987 in what was then Nyaruhengeri commune in Rusagara.

Agnès UWIMABAZI

My name is Uwimabazi Agnès. Agnes is a name that I gave myself as an adult. I was raised in the Kirehe region, by Christiana Mukangwije.

Adeline Umutoni

I am Adeline UMUTONI. I have been a journalist for more than fifteen years. I started my career as a journalist when I was in Bujumbura, Burundi, but since 2015 I returned to my country Rwanda

DANCILLE Mukarubibi

I am Dancille MUKARUBIBI. I work in Butare, at the Research Center...IRST. I met Mrs. Béatrice in Belgium, in Louvain la Neuve where I am doing my doctoral research.

Mariana Eva Perez.

My name is Mariana Eva Perez. I am a writer and researcher. I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1977, under the dictatorship which implemented a massive policy of enforced disappearances.

Francine Mayran

Once I met Beatrice, I decided to paint his portrait and that of a young girl she helped.

MARIE LOUISE SIBAZURI

One Sunday afternoon, Beatrice went to the IBIREZI VY’UBURUNDI ASBL where we did a dance rehearsal as usual.

Assumpta Mugiraneza

Assumpta Mugiraneza has a degree in social psychology and political science. She has collaborated on numerous articles on education against hatred, anti-Semitism, negrophobia and racism; as well as on Anne Aghion’s films on the Gacaca justice process and social reconstruction in Rwanda. .

Adèle

“I give thanks to God, as He has blessed me. I thank everyone who helped me find him; my doctor who had the patience to listen to me when, everywhere I went, all I could talk about was my son. ".

Ignantiana MUKARUSANGA

I was born in Kabgayi in 1957. Two years later there was a war. The first image I have of my society is that of escape. We had not left our region, but we spent the night in the bushes or with friends who hid us.

John Rubangura

Activities

In Rwanda

In Belgium

For any information

and any contact

Partners