Appolinaire Kageruka was 24 years old, and working as a teacher, when the Genocide in Rwanda began in 1994.  He was born a Tutsi which was the ethnicity targeted during the Genocide. Before this, Appolinaire had helped to pay for the school fees of one of his students and it was this student whose family hid him during the Genocide, helping him to escape and survive.

Appolinaire’s mother, father, brothers and sisters were all killed in the Genocide. He did not have time to pack anything to take with him into hiding. The one item that he had was a radio, the radio provided him with information about the situation in the country.  

After liberation Appolinaire made a journey of refuge to the UK, where he lives in Coventry and heads the Rwandan Community Association there.  He is rebuilding the family that he lost, and has a son that he named after his father, Bernard.  Find out more about Appolinaire’s life story.

Appolinaire shared his testimony for Holocaust Memorial Day 2014.  Watch our short film for HMD2014: Journeys