Rwandan Children Foundation

Sonia Gisa

Sonia Gisa is a Rwandan Author of the memoir : « Slaughter Baby » about the miracle of her surviving from 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi.

She is also a model and actress born in Karongi.

After having been on the podium of the top model Balgium competition in 2010, she won miss supranational in 2015 and became, miss africa. Discovered by Dominique models, who will become her mother agency, she shows and poses for the best ones in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Milan.

In 2017, she acted in film rattrapage by director Tristan Séguéla and in 2019, participated in the film very valentine by Menhuj Huda (taken from Adriana Tigriani's book) for Channel Lifetime.

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Sonia Gisa

In 2009, aged 18, Sonia Gisa moved to Belgium from her native Rwanda, where as a child she had lived through the genocide that saw her father killed. She spoke French, soon found her way into an educational programme and within a year had embarked on what would develop into an award-winning modelling career. But, as she details in an extract from her memoir, Slaughter Baby, the culture shock was slightly more than she bargained for.

Growing up in Rwanda right after the genocide, I was supported by many Non-Governmental Organisations. Without these organisations, all of my childhood needs would have been difficult to cover. The NGOs provided school fees and food. One organisation also managed to bring water to my home village. However, as Rwanda is no longer in a time of post-war, there are not many NGOs providing support. Even if they were present, they could never cover the needs of all children.

Growing up, I felt that I had a purpose to go back and provide the same support that I received when I was young. We started by donating clothes to children and look forward to providing school fees.