Helene Nayituriki

Sister Helene Nayituriki (born 1955) is a Rwandan Roman Catholic Bernardine nun and educator who saved the lives of 150 Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide.

Early life Nayituriki was born into a Christian family, and became interested in becoming a nun at a young age. On April 6, after learning of the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, she urged her students "to be united and stay prayerful". On April 7, she collected her students' identity cards so the Tutsi students could not be identified. The students lived in their dormitories, leaving only for lunch, In the following days, Nayituriki was pressured by Interahamwe militia to turn over her Tutsi students, but she refused. At the same time, Nayituriki also found shelter for Tutsi neighbors, In 2012, ten of Nayituriki's former students gifted her a cow in recognition of her actions.