Odette Nyiramilimo
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Odette Nyiramilimo | |
|---|---|
_(cropped00).jpg) Odette Nyiramilimo in 2017 | |
| Born | 1956 (age 69–70) Kinunu, Gisenyi Province[1] |
| Alma mater | National University of Rwanda |
| Occupations | physician, politician |
| Years active | 1981-present |
| Spouse | Jean-Baptiste Gasasira |
| Children | 3 |
Odette Nyiramilimo (born 1956) is a Rwandan physician and politician. She served as Minister of State for Social Affairs in the government of Paul Kagame from March 2000 to October 2003, a member of the Rwandan Senate from 2003 to 2008, and was a member of the East African Legislative Assembly for one term, from 2012 to 2017.
Education
Nyiramilimo, an ethnic Tutsi, was born in Kinunu, Gisenyi prefecture in 1956. She was the seventeenth of her father's eighteen children, born to his second wife. At a young age, her family fell victim to anti-Tutsi attacks which left her family's home burned down. Many members of her family were also killed at this time, and during similar events over the following years. In 1963, many of her uncles was killed.[1]
Following this, a friend of Nyiramilimo's family granted them Hutu identification cards, allowing them to survive without harassment. However, this didn't stop harassment of the family, and many times, such as in 1973, her family experienced harassment and violence, such as having their house burned down again.[1]
Despite being granted official Hutu status, due to the small population of Kinunu, Nyiramilimo still experienced harassment in school due to her Tutsi heritage. She began attending the Notre Dame d'Afrique Nyundo boarding school in 1968, at the age of 12. Later, at the direction of the Belgian school director, she and several other Tutsi girls were expelled from her primary school.[1][2]
Later, despite the Belgian director's insistence to not readmit Nyiramilimo, she managed to find schooling elsewhere and prepared to study medicine. This involved a different Belgian school director helping her in ways such as keeping her name outside of official records, to avoid her being targeted. She rose to be the first in her class, and later was admitted into the National University of Rwanda in Butare. In 1981, Nyiramilimo graduated as a medical doctor from that school.[1]