Why this 23-year-old has 24 kids

This isn't your typical family. Nkusi is 23. None of his "children" share his DNA. In fact, the only thing linking them is that they're all genocide survivors -- ethnic Rwandan Tutsis who lost their families in the 1994 violence that killed 800,000 people.


'It's because of history'

Creating "artificial families" to help young genocide survivors cope is the brainchild of an organization called the Association for Student Genocide Survivors (AERG). Originally founded by 12 University of Rwanda students in 1996, they've expanded to 43,397 university and high school students from across the tiny east-central African country today.

AERG initially creates families from members based on the secondary school or university they attend, after which the newly-formed family meet to democratically elect a willing father and mother from among their ranks. Though they don't all live together, they do help each other out financially and attempt to pool their resources.

In the University of Rwanda's College of Education alone there are 21 such families, with hundreds more being set up across the country.