Mujawayo, Esther

Esther Mujawayo-Keiner was born in Rwanda in 1958. She is a sociologist ( Master Degree from Université de Louvain la Neuve in Belgium) and worked for years with OXFAM UK in its development and emergency programme in the Great Lakes region (Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern Congo) as a Deputy Country Representative. During the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, her husband, parents and most of her extended family were killed. With other widows she established the self-help group AVEGA (Association des Veuves du Genocide d'Avril). Mujawayo-Keiner trained as a trauma therapist in the University of East Anglia and later on for AVEGA. For the moment she works in the PSZ (Psychosocial Center for Refugees) in Düsseldorf. With Souad Belhaddad she wrote two books. Both have been translated in German and the last one in Italian. With BBC and Comic Relief in the UK, she produced a TV documentary, Hope in Hell about the women who have been deliberately raped and infected with HIV during the genocide. Esther Mujawayo-Keiner received two prices for the books, the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Distinguished Service Cross) from the President of the Federal Republic of Germany(October 2008), The Women Social Award in Vienna (Nov 2008) and recently the UN Watch Award.