"I would like to dedicate this prize to the Congolese people who have suffered since 1994 from repeated attacks by neighboring countries, mainly Rwanda. (,,,) I also dedicate this prize, to the Congolese, who from Bukavu to Kinshasa, welcomed me, housed, fed and looked after me without knowing me, thus showing humanity despite the precarious situation in which the war had rushed. I dedicate this prize to the friends, Belgians, Congolese, Germans, Dutch who helped me to get out of the Congo and to arrive safe and sound in Belgium."

"My feelings of pain and suffering now have also become a way of helping other people and a big part of helping society in general. So, it was not easy. But I’m glad that I never gave up. I persisted and pushed myself to become stronger than before."

"What happened in one day can happen anywhere, and people should be aware of [this], because it’s not something that happens overnight."

"Too often, it is preceded by repeated warning signs that fail to receive a strong and early international response."

"The more we keep silent, the more history repeats itself."

"It takes a long time to express how we feel. I am trying to show the other survivors that we need to express that pain we have."

"She should pay attention to every stage of the competition."

"She must be prepared to face the challenges in the competition and do everything possible to overcome them."

"What is the point of coming here if I’m going to be politically correct – I’m not a politician – the truth needs to be heard."

"I want to be nice and forgive, but I can’t because you failed us once, and now you are failing the survivors."

"You do your best while in the competition, and the rest you leave it in the hands of the judges."

"I hope she can do better."

"People mistake us talking about this to be out of hatred but that's not the case. It is because we want people to know how it happened. So if people know how this comes about, then it would be easy to stop such actions."

"My husband said he could not allow all the Rwandan refugees to repatriate at once with all their cows and everything."

"Competition, some go through to the next stage and others don’t."

"I am part of making people be aware of how genocide can happen, so. And if we are aware, we can make sure we prevent that from happening again."

"I truly have hope because there are a lot of young people here. I challenge you all to make a difference, it’s in your hands."

"I believe that everyone deserved to win the crown but the only thing is that it could only go to one."

"Generalisations only favour the killers."

"Mama, I wasn’t there to cover your body and all I have left is words… over and over, my sentences weave a shroud for your missing body."

"So we learned to deal with it very early in a way that doesn't stop you living."

"It was surrealistic. I was really thinking, 'Are we dreaming?' They deny everything, they deny everything."

"The genocide can not be interpreted as a humanitarian drama. This would mean refusing to analyse the way a genocide can be carried out."

"The paintings express aspects of genocide like betrayal of relatives, negligence of the church and community leaders, and issues related to the horrors which visited the local people."

"Most of the survivors we have today were broken in their bodies and their souls."

"If it could have happened, it can happen again."

"the genocide happened while she was abroad and that the pain of losing her relatives, in Nyanza district, compelled her to write the book-which became a source of internal healing."

"What is forgiveness? Forgive who? Who has asked me for forgiveness?"

"You have to learn again to trust, to reconcile yourself, your life, come to the point where you say this life is worth it and I have the right to live again."

"To fight against the ideology and denial of genocide is to fight against hate."

"From the worst, most terrible experience of the genocide against Tutsi in 1994, we managed to make something good, something beautiful."

"When you are constantly thinking you will be deported tomorrow, you cannot integrate, you cannot learn the language, you cannot start to live again."

"Alone, you are just by yourself, but together you can be strong again."

"Even though they have lost everything, they still keep their role as a mother, as the caretaker of the household."

"The women still have a strong sense of purpose, which makes it easier for them to start their lives here."

"You can take your unfortunate history and use it to grow, to be even better."

"I begun accepting the fate allotted to me when I encountered in Rwanda, the one with whom I was to share my life for 23 years and who became the father of my children. I was then aged 18 and had never left my homeland."

"A game of general knowledge about sexuality. Entertaining, informative and sensual."

"It is possible to become the man or the woman you used to be again, to become alive again."

"My husband had told me: ‘never ask me anything about national business."

"From her birth on a Rwandan hill to her current life in Germany. She tries to recount the appalling wound of the genocide in order to overcome the terrible guilty feeling about: "Why did I survive?"

"My lesson to all is that no matter what horrible circumstance we may face in our lives, we must never lose hope, for losing hope is the beginning of our own self defeat."

"Countries can authenticate and confirm the issuing authority of the e-Passport. E-Passport forgery is close to zero because of the embedded chip that contains biometric data of the bearer."

"Words matter. Words have power. We saw in Rwanda, it [the genocide] started from words."

"Whenever you see injustice happening, you must speak out."

"The genocide in Rwanda was preventable if the international community had intervened."

"Do something. . . Be aware. . . Learn from history. It can happen anywhere."

"My life matters. . . No matter what you’ve been through, you should never give up. Never lose hope."

"Therefore, Rwanda used the gacaca system, “a traditional justice system that was used before to reconcile families. People come together in the community to reconcile."

"In our culture, we don’t talk a lot about experiences."