Paul Rusesabagina was born June 15, 1954 into a farming family in south-central Rwanda. Rusesabagina attended the Hotel Management program of Utalii College in Nairobi, Kenya. After returning to Rwanda, Rusesabagina became assistant manager of Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali, Rwanda. Eight years later he was promoted to general manager of the Diplomate Hotel. During his work at these hotels Rusesabagaina gained influence and many allies in Kigali, Rwanda. He met his wife, Tatiana, at a wedding party at his hotel and they had two children together.
The Rwandan genocide broke out because of purely racial differences between Hutus and Tutsis after a governmental void was left following the withdrawal of Belgian influence. Over 800,000 Rwandans were dead before the United Nations managed to send any aid. Rusesabagina used his influence to shelter and save the lives of over one thousand refugees and orphans in the Mille Collines Hotel from the murderous Hutu Interahamwe. Rusesabagina refused to leave the people he was protecting at the hotel even after his wife pleaded with him for hours and he made arrangements for her escape. Tatiana Rusesabagina's attempt at escape was foiled when Hutu soldiers sent all the trucks back to the hotel and beat Tatiana especially because she was Paul Rusesabagina's husband and he was protecting people they wanted to kill. Paul Rusesabagina eventually, with the help of the RPF or Rwandan Patriotic Front, escaped to Tanzania with his family and 1,268 other Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Paul Rusesabagina is a model of faith becuase he risked his life to save hundreds of people and in the face of great danger remained determined to help these people escape a gruesome death by the Hutu militia. Paul Rusesabagina's wife, Tatiana, a Tutsis, had ten close family members die in the Rwandan genocide including her mother and father. In 2005, Rusesabagina received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush for his heroism during the Rwandan genocide. Rusesabagina now lives in Brussels after receiving multiple threats on his life.
