OUR PEOPLE
Meet the people who help develop and deliver Ishami’s work: our CEO, and survivor speakers.
OUR CEO
Eric Murangwa Eugene MBE
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
Eric Murangwa Eugene is a survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, a former international footballer, a genocide education campaigner and a sport for development and peace advocate. It was his vision that brought together Football for Hope, Peace and Unity and Survivors Tribune into one organisation, The Ishami Foundation.
In 1994 Eric was a goalkeeper for the renowned Rayon Sports Football Club. He and most of his immediate family survived the genocide in part thanks to the courage and humanity shown by his teammates. As a result he became convinced that sport and storytelling have the power to influence society in a way that little else does.
He comments: “For many years after the genocide, I kept asking myself ‘why me?’ And only recently I came to realise that those who survived had all survived for a purpose, which is to make sure our loved ones weren’t lost in vain. The only way we can do that is to make sure that what happened to them, and to us, never happens to our children.”
In 2018 Eric was awarded an MBE for his outstanding service to the community through sport and genocide education.
OUR STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS
We currently don’t have any paid members of staff. The majority of our work is accomplished on a voluntary basis. That said, where possible we always try to recompense survivors for their time (to cover lost earnings and childcare) and football coaches in Rwanda for work on specific projects.
Evariste Habimana
Community Impact Coach
Evariste Habimana is a Geography and Sports teacher at Nyanza Secondary School in Rwanda. He is also the Head of Community Impact Coaches Program and Southern Region Programme Coordinator for Ishami Foundation in Rwanda. Evariste joined FHPU (now Ishami Foundation) after successfully completing three years of training through the Play For Hope: Rwanda 20 programme. He has a Level 2 Certificate in Sport for Social Impact and is a qualified International Community Impact Coach (ICIC) under Coaches Across Continents (CAC) and FHPU training standards. He has also 2 years experience as a Youth Trainer on Mind Education and Leadership skills gained at International Youth Fellowship (IYF) training programme in Rwanda. During the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda he lost local friends and a teacher. As a result he became motivated to fight discrimination and promote reconciliation amongst young people in Rwanda through fellowships and education. He is also a football coach at Future Sound Football Academy in Nyanza district.
OUR ADVISORY BOARD
Zoe Norridge
Education Advisor
Dr Zoe Norridge is the inaugural Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Ishami Foundation. She works with Eric on all aspects of Ishami, in particular public communication, partnerships and strategy. A Senior Lecturer at King’s College London, her research explores cultural responses to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. In April 2014 she curated the exhibition Rwanda in Photographs: Death Then, Life Now with Mark Sealy MBE in the Inigo Rooms, Somerset House East Wing (London) and presented the BBC Radio 3 documentary Living with Memory in Rwanda. Zoe is also an Associate Editor at Wasafiri literary magazine and a member of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust Expert Reference Group.
Dr Richard Benda
Research and Policy Advisor
Junior Sabena Mutabazi is a public policy professional working with policy formulation, implementation, and advocacy. He also writes a weekly column for Rwanda’s leading newspaper, The New Times. Junior has been involved with Ishami’s constituent organisations, FHPU and Survivors Tribune, for a long time and was also the Youth Representative for the Rwanda Community Association in London before returning to Rwanda to live in 2017. He now works as the Strategic Advisor to the CEO of the Rwanda Development Board. Junior has spoken at youth conventions, schools and universities; shared a platform with president Paul Kagame; represented Rwanda at Buckingham Place; and worked on campaigns to raise awareness of genocide, peace building, HIV and AIDS. He holds an MSc in Public Services Policy & Management from King’s College London, University of London.
Sean Ndiho Obedih
Strategic Business and Partnership Advisor
Sean Ndiho Obedih was born in Rwanda and has lived in the UK since 2000. He was one of the founding members of Survivors Tribune and holds a BSc Business Enterprise from the University of Buckingham. Aged only 14 in 1994, he lost most of his friends and members of his extended family during the genocide against the Tutsi, an experience that has had a huge effect on his life. Obedih is involved in several Africa-focussed enterprises in London and is passionate about development in Africa. He assists the Ishami Foundation with strategic structural support and advice.