Celebrities and Politicians turn out for Rwandan genocide survivors Mass candle lighting and practical help marks genocide, 15 years on

What do Kofi Annan, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen, David Cameron and Desmond Tutu have in common?

This week they are among the first public figures to light ‘Candles for Rwanda’ on camera – encouraging people everywhere to join a global initiative via the website, www.candles4rwanda.org, to commemorate the 15^th anniversary of the 1994 genocide and lift destitute survivors out of poverty.

“During a 100 days from 7 April 1994, a million children, women and men were slaughtered in Rwanda, simply because of who they were,” says Stephen Twigg, a Director of the Aegis Trust, which is helping to coordinate the initiative. “Today, despite the trauma of the past, Rwanda is rebuilding and full of hope for the future. However, it remains one of the poorest countries in the World, and thousands of those who survived – many of them widowed or orphaned by the genocide – remain destitute, unable to keep shelter over their heads or put food on the table. ‘Candles for Rwanda’ is intended to help change all of that.”

Lifting destitute survivors out of extreme poverty

For every donation you give – either through www.candles4rwanda.org, or by texting ‘CANDLES’ to 82010 to give £5.00 – a candle will be lit on your behalf and placed in remembrance at mass graves in the grounds of the Kigali Memorial Centre, where 250,000 victims of the genocide lie buried.

The first few pence pay for the candle. The rest of the donation goes directly to meet the needs of the most destitute among the survivors, lifting them out of extreme poverty and giving them a chance to start rebuilding their lives. The growing sea of candles at the Kigali Memorial Centre, and the very practical support that comes with it, will show survivors they are not forgotten; that people the World over do care about their suffering.

“I will never forget going to visit the genocide memorial centre in Kigali,” says David Cameron. “Someone once said that while one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is just a statistic. We must prove that wrong. We owe that to those who survived.”

“This candle, I want to light for you.”

The first candles lit in Rwanda as part of the initiative will be in the National Stadium, Kigali, during the official commemoration of the genocide on the night of 7^th April. As thousands of candles are lit across the pitch, a short film featuring high profile figures taking part in the initiative will be displayed on the stadium’s main screen.

In the face of genocide, words can seem futile. Some of the stars – Samuel L Jackson, Clive Owen and Adrien Brody among them – chose to light their candles in silence. Some reflected on what they themselves were doing in 1994 when the genocide happened, or talked about their own experience of Rwanda. Others simply offered a moving dedication of their candle-lighting to the victims and survivors.

“I want to light this candle for those people who were killed, and the parts of us that were killed, as people in humanity, to allow these things to happen,” said Forest Whitaker, who in 2007 won an Oscar for his screen portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. “I want to light this candle in hope, with the hope that things like this will never happen again. With the hope that those souls who have passed, and those souls who have been scarred, move upward towards the light. I want to light this candle for love, because it represents the spark that we have inside of all of us. This candle, I want to light for you... I want to light for us.”

The politicians and stars...

Those taking part in the launch of ‘Candles for Rwanda’ include Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Clive Owen, Forest Whitaker, Adrien Brody, John Hurt, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Natalie Portman, Zero 7, Reverend and the Makers, Mattafix, Mia Farrow, Sidney Poitier, Samuel L Jackson, Hugh Dancy, Sandra Bullock, Switch foot, Lucy Liu and Madeleine Albright. They also include survivors: Holocaust survivor Martin Stern, Cambodian survivor Samol Loeng and Darfuri survivor Ibrahim Issa Korkor.

Film clips featuring these people lighting their ‘candles for Rwanda’ will be available to view online at www.candles4rwanda.org. They will also be available to view on multiple social networking sites, including YouTube and FaceBook.

See Samuel L Jackson's message:

Other celebrities, politicians and public figures from around the world will be announcing their support for the initiative during the course of the 100-day commemoration period, building to concluding announcements on 16 July.

Partners involved in the ‘Candles for Rwanda’ initiative include Rwanda15 (the official Rwandan commemoration), the Imbuto Foundation, Kigali City Council, Ibuka, the Aegis Trust, Three Generations, Eye Spy Films, The Infantry, The Harry Potter Alliance, PR4 and Instigate Debate.