Paul Rusesabagina

Paul Rusesabagina (Kinyarwanda: [ɾusesɑβaɟinɑ]; born 10 June 1952) is a Rwandan humanitarian who, while working as a hotel manager at the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali, Rwanda, hid and protected 1,268 Hutu and Tutsi refugees from the interahamwe militia during the Rwandan Genocide. None of those refugees were hurt or killed during the attacks.

Rusesabagina's efforts were the basis of the Academy Award-nominated film Hotel Rwanda (2004), in which he was portrayed by American actor Don Cheadle. He currently lives in Brussels, Belgium, with his wife, four children, and two adopted nieces. Rusesabagina founded the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation to fight for global human rights.

Rusesabagina was one of nine children born to a Hutu father and Tutsi mother in Murama, Rwanda. Rusesabagina's parents sent him to school in a town near Gitwe run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. By age 13, he was fluent in English and French. He married his first wife, Esther Sembeba, on September 8, 1967. By the end of his adolescence, Rusesabagina had decided to become a minister. He and his wife moved to Cameroon where he studied at seminary.

In December 1978, he, his wife, and two children moved to Kigali. While there, a childhood friend, Isaac Mulihano, invited Rusesabagina to apply for an opening to work at the Mille Collines. He was offered a position and was later sent to Switzerland and Brussels to study hotel management. Due to distance and his commitment to work, he and Esther legally separated in 1981. Rusesabgina was granted full custody of their three children: Diane, Lys, and Roger.

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