Eugenie Mukeshimana

Eugenie is the founder and executive director of the Genocide Survivors Support Network. She was a young adult and 8 months pregnant when the genocide broke in Rwanda in 1994. She is a frequent panelist and lecturer on genocide-related issues such as justice and forgiveness, gender-based violence, memorialization and preservation of history, trauma and grief management, education and advocacy.

Bearing her first child during the genocide, Eugenie understands the impact of the genocide on mothers and widows who did the unimaginable to save their children. Consequently, she can also relate to the challenges they faced and continue to struggle with after the genocide, and the impact of their personal experiences on family members they care for.

In 2001, Eugenie emigrated to the U.S. to pursue a degree in Social Work at the College of St. Rose in Albany, NY. She soon noticed that her classmates and teachers had no knowledge about the tragedy she had personally suffered seven years earlier. This shocking discovery inspired her to embark on a new mission to educate students, teachers, and other community groups about the crime of genocide. In her speeches, Eugenie shares her life experiences with her audience, raises questions about basic human rights as well as personal and collective responsibility to protect them, and urges her audience, especially students, to never allow themselves lose sight of humanity and dignity in others.

Upon graduation, Eugenie continued her career in the field of Social Work. She worked with Homeless families in New York and in New Jersey until recently when she learned of increasing number of genocide survivors who had emigrated to the U.S. and had no support system to help them address personal and community needs. Eugenie responded to this need by founding Genocide Survivors Support Network (GSSN), a charitable organization with a mission to help genocide survivors rebuild their lives and educate communities about the crime of genocide.

Eugenie currently lives in South Orange, New Jersey; she has a combined experience of over 16 years in Social Services, mostly working with displaced families both in Rwanda and in the USA.

Follow Eugenie on Twitter @gssnglobal.