China-Africa Cooperation: 2018 marks 24 years since the Rwandan genocide

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This month it's been 24 years since the end of the genocide. At least 800,000 people were killed in around 100 days - an ethnic-based slaughter that stunned the world. But Rwanda's story since then has been one of remarkable recovery and a testament to the resilience of its people. CGTN's Peninah Karibe has this report.

70 Kilometres south of Kigali, we come across this sign. This is our destination, what's known in Rwanda as a model village - because of its symbolism. Everyone here was affected by the 1994 genocide. John Giraneza was 14 when the killing began.

JOHN GIRANEZA, SURVIVOR "This place borders Burundi. There was a big forest in which people would hide and then cross over to Burundi. But the police and other perpetrators knew about it and started waylaying people so that they could kill them."

Giraneza's family was well known - and the killers picked them out early. His father was killed, along with his 10 wives. 27 of Giraneza's 37 brothers and sisters were murdered.

Giraneza owes his life to the arrival of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the forces led by current president Paul Kagame, which ended the genocide in July 1994.

JOHN GIRANEZA, SURVIVOR "The RPF captured the area and found me unconscious. They took me to a military hospital. I was in a coma for 135 days and stayed in the hospital for 6 years."

Rebuilding his life took years. But then he heard of a housing project to resettle survivors.

So model villages like this one were built across the country, where survivors and perpetrators lived side by side. Alongside people's courts to dispense justice, there was determined reconciliation drive.

It was in one of these reconciliation meetings where Giraneza met the woman who would become his wife. Even though her family had helped killed his.

MARIE JEAN UWIMANA, SURVIVOR "The most difficult moment was when I told my family about the marriage proposal. My mum and sisters were against it. They told me he wanted to take revenge because my family killed his. But I had seen John in the reconciliation meetings and how much he had changed and I was sure, for him, it was not about revenge. So I accepted his proposal without my family's consent."

10 years down the line, the couple is an extraordinary example of the unity and reconciliation that's underpinned Rwanda's revival.

PENINAH KARIBE, BUTARE, RWANDA "24 years after the genocide, focus has now shifted from rebuilding shattered lives to promoting growth and development. Economic empowerment while enhancing peaceful existence has now taken centre stage."

JOHN GIRANEZA, SURVIVOR "Now we don't talk about the horrors we went through during the genocide, we discuss development projects that we can engage in."

You can see the results in the village -livestock, solar-lighting, thriving livelihoods.

John Giraneza is a peace ambassador, travelling to war-torn countries such as the Central African Republic and South Sudan, living proof that there's redemption in reconciliation, that the very worst of times can bring out the very best in people.

PK, CGTN, Rwanda