RWANDAIR PARTNERS WITH BUJUMBURA FASHION WEEK RwandAir is proud to announce its partnership with Bujumbura Fashion for the first edition of the Bujumbura Fashion Week held in the capital of Burundi. The event took place at the Club du Lac Tanganyika Hotel. RwandAir’s support of the event is in the spirit of broadening our network to be accessible to customers across the continent from all walks of life. “This partnership will strengthen RwandAir’s position as the fashionable airline of choice to and from Burundi”, said George Rudakubana, RwandAir Country Manager in Burundi. 350 people from different countries attended the event, including many international and local designers and guests living both within and outside the country. The exceptional event was sponsored by the government through the National Tourism Office of Burundi and was dedicated to the 52nd anniversary of the independence of Burundi. The Bujumbura Fashion Week began on Tuesday 2 July 2014 and included a number of fashion shows and side events before concluding on Saturday 5 July. RwandAir is proud to support important cultural events such as the Bujumbura Fashion Week and congratulates all those who showed collections during the week. RwandAir flies daily to Bujumbura. Visit www.rwandair.com to book your flight.
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RWANDAIR MARKS THE TWENTIETH COMMEMORATION OF THE GENOCIDE - KWIBUKA20 On 20 June 2014, RwandAir commemorated for the twentieth time the Genocide against the Tutsi. The genocide took place in April 1994 and lasted for a period of 100 days. During that time, more than a million Rwandans were killed. RwandAir took time to remember and honour those who passed away as well as to support survivors. Our CEO John Mirenge, together with Gobena Mikael (Commercial General Manager) and 70 RwandAir employees, made the annual trip to Bugesera where they marked ‘Kwibuka’. Kwibuka is the Kinyarwanda word for remember and describes activities marking the twentieth commemoration of the genocide. The visit to Bugesera began at the Nyamata memorial site where thousands of Tutsi who had sought refuge at a local church were brutally murdered. Today the site serves as a remembrance to victims of the genocide and as a tool for education to ensure Never Again is a reality. To honour and preserve the memory of the victims, RwandAir made a donation to the memorial site. After paying their respects, the group headed to a nearby village where they helped 30 families of orphans, widows and widowers with food supplies. They also helped to renovate five houses belonging to vulnerable survivors in the community.
Those assisted were incredibly touched and grateful for the love and empathy shown by the RwandAir team. Our team was also touched and inspired by the resilience of the community’s survivors. In total, the RwandAir team raised 7,000,000 rwf (US $10,000) to support the community. “Like we’ve done in the past years, I re-affirm that our partnership will be on an on-going basis to ensure that RwandAir impact the lives of people in the Murambi community” said John Mirenge, CEO of RwandAir. In Kigali, RwandAir organised a day of testimonies and experiences shared by some of the family members of former Air Rwanda employees (the previous name of RwandAir) who were killed in the genocide. Representatives of the Rwanda Defence Forces, Rwanda National Police, members of the Commission for the Fight Against Genocide, FARG (the government’s survivor support organisation), and RwandAir employees all gathered to learn about the causes, reality and consequences of the Genocide against the Tutsi. The marking of the twentieth commemoration was incredibly emotional and we were more than proud to stand alongside Rwandans to ‘Remember – Unite – Renew’ for Kwibuka20. RWANDAIR INZOZI MAGAZINE | 73