Gahizi Ganza Dieudonne

Gahizi Ganza Dieudonne (born 18 August 1985 in Rutana, Burundi) is a filmmaker. His family returned to Rwanda in 1994 when he was 9 years old. This was the same time as the Rwandan [...] against the Tutsi was taking place, and his father was a political activist with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party during that time. Gahizi’s childhood dream was to help vulnerable people especially those affected by the [...].

He attended the National University of Rwanda and graduated in 2011 with a Degree in Applied Statistics. He Studied filming for a period of 3 months and his first project was a documentary called "One Day of a Blind Student". The story follows a blind man who entered University despite his belief that he could not go for higher education because of his disability. The documentary received multiple national awards. Gahizi reached international recognition with his second documentary called "Change and I Mean It", which won him the Shivdasani award in the best documentary category. Gahizi, a [...] survivor, lost almost all of his relatives in the 1994 [...] against the Tutsi. His aunts and sisters were sexually assaulted during the [...] inspiring him to seek support for the victims. He has dedicated himself to documenting stories of [...] against the Tutsi especially of [...] victims and their children born of [...]. Gahizi took leadership and interest in changing and empowering their lives through the Best Hope Rwanda Charity. The Charity’s mission is the improvement of their psychosocial, medical, educational and economic support to facilitate their re-integration into the community and to increase their ability to be self-reliant. Gahizi has been awarded for his humanitarian achievements including his recent paper and documentary on 'Genocides impact on children born of [...] in 1994' and supporting vulnerable people in Rwanda. On the 5th and 6 December 2013 Gahizi was invited by the president of the republic of Rwanda Paul Kagame to attend the National Dialogue.

Awards & Nominations

References

• Best Hope Rwanda, http://besthoperwanda.org
• BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/gahuza/amakuru/2011/05/110506_gahizi.shtml
• Montreal Gazette, http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Rwanda+Families+born+[...]/9674038/story.html
• Tve/biomovies Award Ceremony http://tve.org/news/tvebiomovies-award-ceremony1/