A member of The Amahoro Widows group sits at a sewing machine where she and other genocide widows spend the day together sewing and sharing their stories and generate a collective income to address the most pressing needs of its members.

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Healing The Heart

Sarah Bones | Rwanda

Fifteen Years after the Genocide: Is Healing Possible?

Text by Beatrice M. Spadacini

Rwandans are aggressively rebuilding their country fifteen years after the 1994 genocide that saw more than one million people brutally murdered in less than 100 days. They are rebuilding from within as well as from outside. Theirs is a remarkable story of human resilience that we all have an obligation to understand. Reconciliation is understandably not a smooth journey and one far from perfect. Given the size of the country and its high population density, no one can avoid it.  What is happening at the national level is often at odds with the process of personal healing. This is a much more arduous and intimate journey.

 Written text by Bea Spadacini  b.spadacini@usa.net

To witness this scope and magnitude of forgiveness in the wake of such terrible crimes is both humbling and inspiring. This is an emotion which reflects humanity at its greatest, however, the darkness and violence of the past still linger in the eyes of the people I photographed, a stark reminder of the past that while forgiven, will never be truly forgotten.

 

                                                           Sarah Bones

 

Bea Spadacini wrote and researched this story. b.spadacini@usa.net

NGOS

AVEGA (Agahozo) Association Veuves du Genocide -Ms. Sabine Uwase (advocacy Officer) uwasabi@yahoo.fr and  avega@rwanda1.com

Gisimba Memorial Center Orphanage-Mr. Damas Gisimba: gisimbacmg@yahoo.com

Pastor Deogratias Gashagaza- Prison Fellowship of Rwanda-Rilima Maximum Security Prison in Nyamata-Restorative Justice: gashfr@yahoo.fr

Mr. Benoit Kaboyi- Secretary General of IBUKA( Survivor's Association): bkaboy@yahoo.com or ibukarwanda@yahoo.fr

Ms. Becky Chinchen-Founder of AMAHORO Womens Association

 

Sarah Bones Photographer

sbonespa@comcast.net

www.sarahbones.com

610-644-2616 610-613-4737

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