"Hello!

My name is Anne-Marie de Brouwer. I work at Impact: Center against Human Trafficking and Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Mukomeze Foundation, and at Bèkske: Rwandan Empowerment Coffee. In particular with regard to those last two organisations, myself and my colleagues had many fruitful meetings with the staff of the Embassy of Rwanda in the Netherlands over the past 13 years.

The Mukomeze Foundation was set up on 8 May 2008 in the Netherlands and focuses on the plight and needs of survivors of sexual violence during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. We work together with Solace Ministries in Rwanda and together we support and seek the empowerment of survivors of sexual violence in such areas as education, agriculture and income-generating projects.

With Bèkske: Rwandan Empowerment Coffee, a social enterprise, we sell in the Netherlands the delicious specialty coffee from Rwanda, grown by Rwandan female coffee entrepreneurs who also survived the genocide, including many also sexual violence. Rwandan coffee is not only one of the best coffees in the world, the coffee we sell is also honest coffee. Bèkske: Rwandan Empowerment Coffee brings 3-4 more times back to the people who grow the coffee than most regular coffees you normally buy.

Together with my colleagues from Mukomeze and Bèkske, I would like to warmly congratulate the staff of the Embassy of Rwanda to the Netherlands with its 15th anniversary. We have always enjoyed our good relationship and contact.

Almost from the very early beginnings that the Rwandan Embassy arrived in the Netherlands, we met. I would like to mention several highlights in our encounters and cooperation.

One was in 2009, when we organized as the Mukomeze Foundation a 15th commemoration event at Tilburg University. We then also launched the book “The Men Who Killed Me: Rwandan Survivors of Sexual Violence”, with testimonials and portraits of Rwandan genocide survivors of sexual violence. The Embassy was present to give a speech about Rwanda’s past, present and future and to commemorate together. We organized more commemorations in the years following, in the presence of the Rwandan Embassy. We always appreciated the interest of the Rwandan Embassy in the work of the Mukomeze Foundation and that it underlined the importance of support to genocide survivors of sexual violence.

Other highlights were the visits of Mama Lambert to the Netherlands on the invitation of the Rwandan Embassy. Mama Lambert is the counselor at Solace Ministries where she counsels thousands of genocide survivors, including the survivors we work with via Mukomeze and Bèkske: Rwandan Empowerment Coffee.

For example, in 2014, the Embassy invited Mama Lambert to speak about her experiences in the genocide at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague within the context of the 20th commemoration of the genocide against the Tutsi.

And in April 2019, the Embassy invited Mama Lambert again, this time for the 25th commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi, in the City Hall of The Hague, to share her story with the audience. We were then also able to present our new book “And I Live On: The Resilience of Rwandan Genocide Survivors of Sexual Violence” – an updated version of “The Men Who Killed Me” in the Peace Palace in The Hague to the UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide.

With Bèkske: Rwandan Empowerment Coffee we are deliberating with the Rwandan Embassy how we can upscale the sales of our coffee in the Netherlands so that we can have a bigger impact on the powerful Rwandan coffee business entrepreneurs. This also falls within its mandate to promote economic cooperation, trade and investment.

We, the board members of Mukomeze and co-owners of Bèkske: Rwandan Empowerment Coffee, wish H.E. Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe and all the staff members of the Rwandan Embassy in The Hague a wonderful and happy 15th Anniversary.

We wish you all the best and many more successes and joy for the years to come."