19 Nov 11 – Honoured in recognition of his humanitarian work at UNESCO’s 20th annual gala in Dusseldorf today, Clive Owen – who is Ambassador for the Aegis Trust, responsible for the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda – dedicated the award, UNESCO’s ‘Pyramide con Marni’, to two brothers who became heroes of the genocide – Damas and Jean-Francois Gisimba.
During the slaughter in 1994, which was aimed at wiping out the Tutsis in Rwanda, around a million people were murdered. At the eye of the storm in Kigali’s Nyamirambo district – a stronghold for the Interahamwe militia carrying out much of the killing – the Gisimba brothers, aided by Carl Wilkens, the only American aid worker to stay behind, saved the lives of over 400 men, women and children who had taken refuge at the orphanage they still run in Rwanda’s capital now.This weekend Damas had to stay in Kigali to take care of the orphanage, but Jean-Francois flew into Dusseldorf to join Clive Owen and the Aegis Trust’s Chief Executive Dr James Smith at the gala, attended by 1400 guests including Mikhail Gorbachev, Forest Whitaker, Vin Diesel, Jerry Hall, Olivier Martinez, Naomi Campbell, Kathleen Turner, Jet Li and Shah Rukh Khan.
When I visited Rwanda with the Aegis Trust last year I was humbled to hear the story of the Gisimba brothers and consider it a crime that they still struggle to make ends meet at the orphanage – which is why Aegis has vowed to do everything it can to help,” stated Clive. “It’s people like this who give us hope – and are living proof that whether in times of great evil or in times of peace, we can all do something to make a difference. I am deeply honoured to receive this award from UNESCO, but it’s people like the Gisimba brothers who really deserve our honour and attention.”
Jean-Francois, who at the time of the genocide was a journalist working for Radio Rwanda, said: “I’m overwhelmed at being recognized in this prestigious gathering. All we did was what anyone else might do. We didn’t look at the people in our place as bereft orphans or as Tutsi refugees. We saw them as our brothers and sisters and we couldn’t understand why anyone wanted to kill them all. Wouldn’t you try whatever you could to protect your family?”
Dr James Smith, Chief Executive of the Aegis Trust – which alongside the Kigali Genocide Memorial, also runs an education programme helping to strengthen social cohesion in Rwanda and counter the risk of future violence – commented, “Education about the genocide is vital for a new generation of young Rwandans to learn from the example of people like Jean-Francois and Damas Gisimba. The brothers feel they were only doing what anyone would in their shoes, but experience shows that actually when societies become divided, that kind of courage is all too rare. Thousands of young people get the chance to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial each year, but for the sake of the future, we need to be reaching hundreds of thousands right across Rwanda. It’s a vital process of learning that’s very much aligned with core UNESCO objectives, which is why we’re particularly delighted that UNESCO has chosen to honour our Ambassador Clive Owen in this way today.”
Former recipients of the ‘Pyramide con Marni’ award include H.H. the Dalai Lama, H.R.H. Queen Noor of Jordan, Chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl, Sir Peter Ustinov, Oliver Stone, Helen Mirren, Goldie Hawn, Jane Fonda, Donatella Versace, Don Johnson, Forest Whitaker, Shakira and Lionel Ritchie.
Welsh opera star Katherine Jenkins sang just before Clive Owen was presented with the award, and Melanie C performed material from her new album “Sea” directly afterwards.
The full text of Clive Owen’s speech at the UNESCO gala for which he received an ovation –can be found below.UNESCO Gala, Dusseldorf, 19 November 2011: Clive OwenCheck against delivery)Thank you. It really is an honour and privilege to be here and to accept this award.
I’m standing here as Ambassador of the Aegis Trust, a charity I am very passionate about. So you must forgive me if I seize this opportunity to tell you about some of the work we do in Rwanda, which I think is very much aligned and in keeping with the mission and ideas of UNESCO.
To give you a brief summary of how I became involved with Aegis: A couple of years ago I was asked to light a candle of support for a memorial that Aegis was organizing in Rwanda for the 15th Anniversary of the genocide. I of course said yes and was then asked if I would actually consider going out to Rwanda to look at some of the work they were doing out there. My daughter Hannah, who was twelve at the time, was very keen to join me. The two of us embarked on a journey that was to have a huge impact on us both.
It’s one thing hearing statistics like a million people being killed in a hundred days, it’s another thing entirely to go out and spend time with the people who experienced it. I sat inside a woman’s home and heard how her family were all murdered and how she was repeatedly raped and given AIDS, was pregnant, gave birth and watched helplessly as dogs ate her baby – all of this witnessed by her ten year old son. As I left her home I met her son, who now has serious mental health issues. The lady pointed to a house across the way and said that the woman who goaded the men to rape her was recently released from prison and now lives there. It was then that I realized both the importance and enormity of the challenge of the work that Aegis is doing out there.
In 2002 the Rwandan Government asked the Aegis Trust to build and help sustain a centre where survivors would be able to commemorate the genocide with dignity and in 2004 they opened the Kigali Genocide Memorial. This is an incredibly moving, educational, informative place where some 250,000 victims of the genocide are buried. And it crucially offers Rwandans a place where they can go and collectively grieve their lost ones.
Out of this centre grew the Aegis Trust’s education programme, because they understand that genocide isn’t just about evil leaders ordering the extermination of a race of people but is also about individual acts of exclusion and prejudice and that education of the young is paramount in trying to prevent something like this happening again.
Despite the overwhelming challenge, we have to believe it is possible to make social change through the hearts and minds of young people.
Aegis also runs a very effective victim support programme – because seventeen years is not a very long time and there are still many in desperate need.
But I think it’s important that we not only look back at the violence and murder but also to examples of people who show us that we do have choices, even in the middle of something as horrific as genocide. On my trip to Rwanda I met some pretty incredible people. Carl Wilkens was the only American to stay in Rwanda during the genocide. He was a man who had every reason to flee, whose own government asked him to leave, but refused because he had friends who were in danger and spent the next hundred days risking his life to bring water and food to the four main orphanages in Kigali. On my last day Hannah and myself visited one of those orphanages – the Gisimba orphanage. It is run by two brothers – Damas and Jean-Francois Gisimba. It’s a very special place. The first thing that struck us is what a hugely positive, optimistic and healthy environment it is.
The history of the place is pretty amazing. It started with their father taking kids into their own home. When their father passed away, to carry on his legacy the brothers opened an official orphanage. When the genocide began in 1994 it became a place of refuge and very quickly Damas and Jean-Francois had four hundred men, women and children hidden there. They had very little themselves but for the next three months the two brothers risked their lives every day hiding everyone in the roofs of the building, bringing them down at night to feed them and doing whatever they could to keep the Interahamwe militia at bay.
There’s too many daily moments of danger and terror to go into now but suffice to say with the help of Carl Wilkens they managed to keep the majority of these people alive. I was humbled to hear their story and consider it a crime to hear how they still struggle to make ends meet – which is why Aegis has vowed to do everything it can to help.
It’s people like this who give us hope – and are living proof that we all have a choice. In times of great evil or in peace we can all do something to make a difference.
Now please don’t take this the wrong way. I am deeply honoured and have huge respect for this award but feel it is people like the Gisimba brothers who really deserve our honour and attention.
Unfortunately Damas has had to stay to run the orphanage and yesterday his brother Jean-Francois was there helping him. But we’ve managed to get him over here because I wanted him to share in this special evening and also, with your permission, would love to dedicate this award to him and his brother.
Thank you.
