Marie Claudine Mukamabano, a Kigali, Rwanda native who lost her family during the 1994 Rwandan genocide — in which Hutus and Tutsis were killed by Hutu extremists — founded her nonprofit Kuki Ndiho (Why Do I Exist?) in 2005. Kiko Ndiho supports orphans and victims of the genocide.
The only representative of African women selected to speak on a panel at the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN in February 2011, Mukamabano founded the United Nations Peace Day in Rwanda. She also received recognition from the Assembly of the State of New York in 2011 for turning a life of hardship into leadership and advocacy.
She is also a speaker, artist, actress, model, author of The Power of Social Media: Be Yourself & Change Somebody’s Life Today! and owner of the Dance Rwanda Theater Company. In this interview Mukamabano shares her experiences with genocide — which she conquered through forgiveness, starting her nonprofit and encouraging fellow orphans to give back while accepting their lives.
AFK Insider: “Why Do I Exist?” is such a profound name for an organization. What is the meaning behind it?
Mukamabano: Kuki Ndiho means “Why Do I Exist?” I am an entertainer. I dance and I sing. I was sitting with Jean Paul Samputu, a former Rwandan artist, and we were having a conversation about what we can do to help our people. I remember I told him that I wanted to give my organization a name that would immediately reflect me because most of the time, people call on other people to help out but they don’t accept responsibility. I wanted the organization’s name to reflect my personal responsibility. Kuki Ndiho. Why do I exist? Because it’s my duty to help others before I even sit down and say, “I need someone to help me, too.”
AFK Insider: Tell us about your experience during the Rwandan genocide
Mukamabano: It was a big loss. I had to deal with trauma. After my mom was killed, I hated everybody. I hated the Hutus. I hated the Tutsis. They killed my relatives. They killed my grandparents. They even killed my mom who I thought was going to survive. It was too much pain and emotion and I had to go through trauma. It took me over 10 years to deal with the fact that I don’t have a mother. I loved my mom so much. She was my best friend and she was my inspiration. She was the one who was pushing me to do everything.
AFK Insider: What inspired you to start your organization?
Mukamabano: Many people were getting shot to my right side, my left side and in front of me. So I thought I would die too because I was by myself. I don’t know what happened. Every time I try to remember, it doesn’t come in my mind. I remember how I reunited again with my mom but I don’t remember what happened when we were separated. That time, I was by myself, that’s what I remember. I was jumping over the dead bodies and they were shooting because soldiers were fighting with rebel soldiers, so we had to go through the gunfire and then the Hutus were killing at the same time. I said, “God, if you save my life here and I survive, I will help orphans.”
My dream was then to go to America and once I got there, I told myself, “I have to immediately start my organization.”
AFK Insider: What is the mission of your organization? In what ways do you support Rwandan genocide orphans?
Mukamabano: We provide training and education with experts in trauma healing and building resilience. In terms of education, we raise awareness about the body of the orphans. When you are a child, you grow up in a family. Your mom and your dad are the ones give you advice, tell you what to do, and who even explain to you what is going on in your body.
In our education program, we provide resources and access to information for them to know how to deal with various issues. We will never, ever replace their parents and we never do anything that their parents would do for them, but we can at east do something to show them that we care —that can give them a sense of hope for tomorrow.
AFK Insider: What special programs does your organization put on?
Mukamabano: We have over 50 people in Rwanda working to advance the mission statement of “Why Do I Exist?” I was appointed to be the ambassador of our national university, because they saw the work that we were doing with the organization in Rwanda. They appointed me to be the ambassador here (in the U.S.) and they want to collaborate and create a partnership with “Why Do I Exist?” in Rwanda. Another project we are working on is an awards ceremony to honor the people who established programs which benefit the community here in the U.S. We are planning to do this award ceremony [on] December 4th in the Bronx.
AFK Insider: What effect does the genocide have on Rwanda today?
Mukamabano: Think about the orphans who don’t have a mother, how deeply they suffer. They have to deal with everything themselves. Trauma is unbelievable, it’s deep; it’s beyond what you think. Sometimes people say, “Oh, genocide is over. OK, 20 years, how can you suffer?” But they forget that it’s their entire life. You will never have anybody like your mom or your dad in your entire life. Some survivors in their 20s are now looking to get married. I had to spend so much energy helping this young man who was 27-years-old. He wanted to get married.
He said, “Who is going to help me get married? I don’t have a parent.” The whole family comes together to help you when you are going to get married. Your parents give you money, even emotional support. He has a master’s degree and he’s a lawyer. He has a good job, but he was almost going to commit suicide because he told me that it’s too much for him to handle. I had to remind him that, “Yes, you are an orphan. You don’t have your parents. We have to face the facts, the aftermath of genocide. Let’s deal with this. Let’s understand where you are. This is not your choice. It’s a reality.”
AFK Insider: What plans do you have for the organization in the future?
Mukamabano: We are collaborating with a UNESCO ambassador to host our internship program. We are collaborating with Black Women in Film. They will be hosting a film screening in a few weeks. We are hoping to work with different charities and schools to fundraise money and to develop more income-generating activities to support and sustain the orphans, especially the orphans who live by themselves in Rwanda. Another thing we are working on is to produce a film which show the lives of the orphans.
We started fundraising [and] we ask people to give donations. We’re about to approach the Christmas season. We want to make our orphans [feel special] by giving them gifts. I love to collect sneakers — you can wear sneakers when you go to school, you can wear sneakers when you go to church. We also want to collect school supplies. We hope to raise at least $10,000 to send Rwanda a container full of computers.