The Prince of Wales has announced to visit Rwanda next year 2020, where Duchess Meghan traveled for her humanitarian work in 2016. Charles has also sent Paul Kagame, the country’s president, his condolences with a letter to mark the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. “My wife and I particularly wanted you to know how much the people of Rwanda are in our thoughts and prayers at this special time of remembrance and reflection,” Charles wrote.
“I can only say how deeply I admire the strength and resilience of the Rwandan people over these past twenty-five years, together with your commitment to reconciliation and your determination that the atrocities of the past must not define the future to which you aspire,” Charles continued. “In this regard, if I may say so, Rwanda, as an indispensable member of our Commonwealth family, offers an aspiring and deeply humbling example to us all.”
The Prince of Wales has sent a letter to the President of The Republic of Rwanda, @Paul Kagame, to mark the 25th Anniversary of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Recognized as the International Day of Reflection, April 7 begins the national commemoration period with Kwibuka (Remembrance) and concludes with Liberation Day on July 4, marking the 100-day period in 1994 that resulted in over one million people being so tragically killed. #Kwibuka25
This week is the beginning of an annual national commemoration period in Rwanda, in which the country recognizes past violence against its minority Tutsi and Twa populations. An estimated 500,000 to 1 million people – most of whom were Tutsi – were killed in the genocide, which took place over a 100-day period from April to July 1994.
Charles will be in Kigali, the country’s capital, which will host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2020. Although Rwanda was not initially a member of the Commonwealth, it joined the global body in 2009.
This will give Charles a chance to bond over something else with daughter-in-law Meghan, and ask her what he needs to know about traveling to the country. Meghan visited Rwanda in 2016 as a Global Ambassador for World Vision Canada. While there, she spent time with children at a school that had been given clean water through a pipeline set up by the charity, and also painted water colour pictures with them.
“I think there’s a misconception that access to clean water is just about drinking water; which, of course, it is,” Meghan said of her visit in 2017. “But it’s so much more than that. Access to clean water in a community keeps young girls in school, because they aren’t walking hours each day to source water for their families.” Read More
