Members of the UALR Rwandan Student Organization will host a film at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 14, at the Engineering and Information Technology Auditorium to remember Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

“Hope: Icyizere” presents a touching story of Rwanda’s reconciliation that presents valuable themes such as forgiveness, communal progress, and the struggle to overcome terrific odds on the path to personal growth.

A discussion with UALR Rwandan Presidential Scholars will follow the screening.

The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

The 1994 genocide killed at least 1 million people in just 100 days. The violence, led by the Hutu majority tribe, was an attempt to wipe out the Tutsi tribe and its Hutu allies. The slaughter stripped the country of its leaders, replacing them with orphans, widows, disease, and poverty.

Six years after a peace treaty ended the violence, UALR, Hendrix College, Philander Smith, and American universities partnered with the Rwandan government to enroll that country’s best minds to help the country rebuild an educated class. Currently, 22 Rwandan Presidential Scholars are enrolled at UALR, and the inaugural group is in its third year.