Click here to watch the "Rwanda Healing Project," a film by Chris Landy.

Click here to view “The Spark of Hope – Rwanda Photo Exhibit“ by Chris Noble

Launched in 2004, this two-fold program deals with the grief of the 1994 genocide and offers education, development, and hope for life in the future. Working with genocide survivors in the Rugerero District near Gisenyi, we have completed a beautiful Genocide Memorial park which has become the official memorial site for the area. We have implemented projects and launched programs to transform the physical and human environment of the Survivors’ Village through art, health, community, and economic development initiatives. This includes launching an educational program for children, initiating a young women’s support group, setting up a basic health education program, installing rain water harvesting tanks for 100 families, building latrines, and starting small business enterprises in sewing, basket weaving, and sunflower oil production. Through these collaborative activities, villagers now feel connected to each other and the village has a sense of place based on images rooted in the residents’ own imagination and creativity.

Background

In 1994, during a period of only 100 days from April 6 through mid-July, approximately one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu sympathizers were killed in Rwanda. Carried out mostly by two extremist Hutu militia groups, the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi, this genocide is the largest organized killing of human beings in the shortest period of time in modern history. Its brutality and destruction left its marks all over this small and verdant country. Even 14 years later, everyone who survived carries the terror and trauma of genocide in his/her daily life.

In 2004 at an international conference in Barcelona, Lily Yeh, Founding director of Barefoot Artists, Inc., met Jean Bosco Musana Rukirande, Regional Coordinator of Red Cross in Gisenyi. Rukirande talked about the situation in Rwanda, 10 years after the 1994 Genocide; Yeh was deeply moved. She decided to visit Rukirande after her project in Korogocho, Kenya at the end of July that year. Rukirande showed her two sites, a crusty structure containing a mass grave of genocide victims in the Rugerero Sector of Rubavu District and a nearby survivors’ village. He told Yeh that both sites needed help urgently.

This need shaped the Rwanda Healing Project, which contains two simultaneous and complimentary programs: 1) the construction of the Genocide Memorial Park and, 2) the transformation of the Survivors’ Village. The Genocide Memorial program looks at the past, violence, destruction and death; the Survivors’ Village program deals with now and the future, development, new possibilities and hope. We can move forward to our future only when we can fully understand and embrace our past.

Thus, this multi-year, multi-dimensional art project expands the boundaries of art as a vehicle for healing and transformation of individuals, families and community. The process engages 100 mostly female-headed families with several hundred children from the Rugerero Survivors’ Village, dozens of workers and volunteers from the nearby city of Gisenyi, professionals from Kigali, as well as dozens of volunteers from the United States.

Project Goals:

Healing through remembering
Healing through storytelling, art making and sports
Healing through creating hope for the future

1. Nurture the relationships established with residents and leaders of the host village to honor their grief and inspire hope, empowerment, vision, leadership, and means to continue the project throughout the year.
2. Provide precious opportunities for U.S. citizens, especially college students, to interact with people living in the third world to better understand our shared vision and global challenges.
3. Create a model of a sustainable village where local talents and creative energy are honored and international volunteers and experts find real situations to work to solve difficult global problems such as environmental deprivation, poverty, poor health care, lack of education, lack of hope, etc.
4. Contribute to the prevention of violence and war through effective documentation of project methodology and benefits to educate a wider audience about the impact of genocide on individuals, local communities, and the larger world.

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Project Activities and Accomplishments from 2004 - present:

Healing through Remembering, the Rugerero Genocide Memorial Monument/Park

After seeing the forlorn condition of the mass graves in Rugerero during her initial visit in 2004, Yeh felt that if healing is to take place in the hearts of the survivors, a new genocide memorial needed to be built. It must have beauty, for beauty heals. Upon returning home, she developed her simple design, which was welcomed and supported by the provincial government. In 2005, returning with volunteers Alan Jacobson, Terry Tempest Williams and Meghan Morris, Yeh recruited the help from China Road and Bridge Construction Company to start the building of the Rugerero Genocide Memorial. Hundreds of children and adults participated.

In March, 2007, Yeh returned to conduct mosaic workshops for ten adults, including master mason Francois and his apprentices. Together, they completed all of the mosaic work on the memorial monument.

TWIBUKE
ABACU BAZIZE GENOCIDE 1994
TUZAHORITEKA TUBIBUKA
Remember
We will never forget the 1994 genocide.

MWATABARUTSE GITWARI
NTIDUTEZE KWIBAGIRWA
URUPFU MWAPTUYE
You died like heroes.
We will never forget how you died.

The villagers gave us these words for the Genocide Monument during the co-creative process of designing the monument. The officials also gave their approval and have designated the site as the official genocide memorial site for the whole Rubavu District.

The memorial was dedicated on April 5th, 2007, two days before the national day of mourning. Over one thousand children and adults attended the ceremony, including Mabete Niyonsaba Dieudonne, Executive Secrectary of Rugerero Sector, Barengayabo Ramadhan, Mayor of Rubavu District, and Joseph Habineza , Minister of Youth, Culture and sports from Kigali. Through the ceremony, the genocide memorial park was officially given to the government and villagers for safe-keeping.

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Healing through STORYTELLING, ART MAKING, CONNECTING, and SPORTS

Barefoot Artists has set up an ongoing Saturday learning program including visual and performing arts, English, and sports (soccer). Clementine Mugurwinka, a core member of the Rwandan team, was a formidable athlete who competed in track and field in the 1984 Olympic Games. She organizes sports activities and teaches traditional dancing to the village children. Art teacher Fabrice teaches children painting and design. He encouraged children to draw inspiration from their home environment and the landscape around them. Fresh and delightful, many of the imagesfrom the workshops were turned into beautiful public art on the walls of many homes in the village. The originality and authenticity of these images give the village a unique look that reflects the local sensitivity, confidence and the daringness to innovate and be different.

Mukamanana Joy teaches English lessons weekly to the village children and adults. Her effort is the foundation of a pen pal project and has become more essential since the Rwandan government made Engilsh a requirement in all schools.

Performing arts

Dancing and singing are essential elements in the life of this village. Villagers dance and sing to celebrate their tradition and to show off their physical beauty and talent. We were welcomed with songs and dances, an expression of their joy and gratitude.

During the welcoming ceremony, there was a woman wearing a long, bright yellow scarf over her shoulder. She bore a deep scar on her neck, the result of a brutal machete cut during the 1994 genocide. Miraculously she survived. Raising her hands high towards the sky, she smiled and sang. She danced her rhythm of triumph and life.

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Connecting with PEN PALS from the United States

In April 2007, Barefoot Artists brought to Rwanda over 500 pen pal letters from American youth in the states of Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Georgia. Each letter contained the name, photograph of the writer, age, name of school, images, and words. Teachers used this as a precious opportunity to educate their students about the dire situation in Rwanda and other places in the world. Children and adults in the village who have seen the letters were deeply moved and encouraged by the personal messages contained in the letters and the abundance of love coming from America.

Barefoot Artists members conducted workshops in which children created numerous drawings and big banners reflecting their village environment, life, and dreams. They have also created many beautifully decorated pen pal letters containing their own photos and personal messages to the young people in America. Participants of the project in Louisville are so inspired by the responses that they renamed the project Freedom Writers’ Diary.

Through the pen pal program, youth from several states are now learning about the Rwandan genocide and reaching out to the Rugerero Survivors Village:

Michele Hemenway, an education consultant in Louisville, KY, continues to broaden the impact of the extensive pen pal program she launched last year. She has involved over 400 hundred students from various schools in writing personal letters to the children in Rugerero. Frost Middle School adopted the project and created a writing portfolio project called “ Voices of Reason.” In April, 2008 Hemenway launched an exhibition also titled “Voices of Reason,” that includes writing by the students at Frost Middle School, return correspondence from Rwanda, and documentary photos of the Rwanda Healing Project. This work, along with an accompanying manual about the exhibit, the project and a special binder that includes the “Voices of Reason” poetry, now has traveled to several schools, organizations and cities for exhibit to raise awareness and funds. She continues to work with a large population of Rwandan refugees, and the family of the former king of Rwanda, Umwami Kigeli and his granddaughter, Marie Bigirumwami, to raise awareness and funds. The series of exhibits at schools began at the Chestnut Street YMCA , where an evening was hosted to raise awareness, funds and celebrate the work of Barefoot Artists. King Kigeli, Rob Shetterly and Lily Yeh spoke at the event. The Chestnut Street YMCA will feature this project at its annual Diversity Conference in November 2008 as an example of peacemaking and what is needed for the future.

Rob Shetterly worked with the Consolidated School (K-8) in Blue Hill, Maine, where he and art teacher Margret Baldwin shared the exhibit pieces with the school and worked with the students to created t-shirts with English – Kinyarwanda “dictionaries” on them. Rob taught the students Kinyarwanda words which they then wrote and illustrated on t-shirts. The beautiful shirts have since been sent to Rugerero. The school also raised over $1,500 to support their peers in the Rugerero Survivors Village and the work of Barefoot Artists.

Students at Maple Shade High School in New Jersey hosted a Unity Day event on June 6th 2008. The keynote speaker, Ms. Susan Ekufu, an enthusiastic young speaker who had emigrated to America from Nigeria as a young child, presented on the subject of the Rwandan Genocide. She was followed by a presentation on the Rwanda Healing Project created and given by the school’s ESL students. The students have also organized several small fundraising events to support the Rwanda Healing Project and have raised $1,000. Teachers at Maple Shade High School shared that the students’ learning about the Rwanda Healing Project has sparked increased interest in thinking and talking about world events and their impact on us all.

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Healing through Creating HOPE FOR THE FUTURE through Better HEALTH

JeffHealth

In October 2005, the Office of Advance Population Health and a team of Jefferson medical students began working with Barefoot Artists to design a community-oriented primary care health needs assessment of the Survivors Village in Rugerero. The team of one physician, one resident, three medical students and one public health nursing student worked with community leaders to assess the health status and needs of the Survivors Village. The goals of this assessment were three-fold: 1) to document the needs of the community members through key informant interviews and focus groups, 2) to evaluate and document the health resources currently available through site visits and semi-structured interviewing of established organizations and 3) to better understand health needs in context of the unique social and political history of Rwanda. Under Professor James Plumb’s guidance, a group of medical students from the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital have been visiting and working in the Rugerero Survivors Village for several weeks each summer since 2006.

From mid-June to mid-July 2007, seven Jefferson medical students went to the Rugerero Survivors’ Village to continue their research work on humanistic medicine. They helped to set up a 10-member health team in the village to monitor hygiene practices in the village. The team members created some lovely paintings, translating the health lessons into pictures, which can instruct lessons on health and hygiene to other villagers.

During the summer of 2008, JeffHealth sent 8 students to Rwanda. Key projects implemented by the students included training villagers to provide health education about HIV/AIDS, family planning, prenatal care, and nutrition. Additionally, the Nutrition Supplement Project is identifying the most malnourished children in the village and will provide their families with chickens to help improve nutrition for their children. It is hoped this pilot project will be expanded next year.

Through Jeffhealth, Thomas Jefferson University sponsored and hosted two medical students from Butare, Rwanda for a two-month long residency ending in early 2008.

Harvesting Rainwater

The water situation at the Survivors’ Village is very difficult all year round because the whole village of 100 families gets water from two faucets. One is located in the middle of the village, the other, next to the office of the Executive Secretary approximately 300 meters from the village center. There is usually a long line of yellow jerricans waiting to be filled at the faucets. Sometimes the faucets yield no water. The situation gets desperate if that happens in dry season. “The greatest problem with this centrally located water pump system is that the Regie Company must constantly perform maintenance on the outdated pipe system. When maintenance is performed, the company must shut off all the water supply to the villages. Not only do villagers suffer from having less water, but they must walk 1 hour or 7 km to the Sebya River (a tributary to Lake Kivu) to get contaminated water for washing, cooking and sometimes drinking. This creates a major problem for the transmission of bacterial, parasitic and fungal diseases.” –JeffHealth report of 2007

Rwanda, a lush and beautiful mountainous country, is blessed with moderate temperature and two rain seasons a year. Noticing that all the homes in the survivors village have corrugated roofs but no device to collect rainwater, Lily Yeh, the founding director of Barefoot Artists asked Jean Bosco Musana, Barefoot Artists Rwanda Coordinator and Michel Habumugisha of Red Cross to work with villagers to produce a rain harvest water storage system design. To test the effectiveness of the design, Barefoot Artists sponsored the construction of two. The design proved to be successful.

To ensure high quality of workmanship, control the cost of construction, and require direct participation of villagers in the installation of the rain water harvest systems, we decided to work with the Kigali based Roto company with expertise in producing high quality water tanks and rainwater harvesting engineering. Roto sent one engineer to the survivors village who worked with local masons and trained six villagers in construction and engineering to complete the installation of water tanks for 100 families. “People are very happy. They say that now with water their toilet must be clean.” – Jean Bosco Musana

Safe Water for Drinking

Over the past 25 years Population Services International (PSI) has worked in partnership with local governments and local affiliates to improve the health of low-income and vulnerable populations around the world. In April 2008, Barefoot Artists sponsored Alain Giovanni Dusabe, manager of PSI Kigali-based office, to provide the village’s 100 families with clean water for one year. Giovanni conducted a workshop in the survivors village on safe water, including how to properly use the PSI product and water management. Jean Bosco Musana will monitor PSI’s monthly deliverance of its product to the village. The team of ten health workers continue to oversee the proper use of the solution by each household. This should improve the overall health situation in the village.

Clean Affordable Energy

Eric Reynolds also introduced a new method developed at the MIT “D-Lab” to turn corncobs into cooking charcoal, to recycle trash into energy. It is his dream to replicate this methodology in other villages in Rwanda. In addition, the team brought the “first light” to the village, 100 renewable solar-powered flashlights and 140 hand-crank dynamo electric LED lanterns using safe, clean, affordable energy to light the villagers’ very dark nights.

Improved Sanitation

A three-member team from the Engineers without Borders, Mid Atlantic Professional Chapter visited the Rugerero Survivors’ Village in February 2008 to assess sanitation in the village. Based on their assessment, nearly half of the 100 existing wastewater systems in the village were a health danger and needed to be repaired or replaced. During the spring and summer the group raised about $50,000 to undertake this work and a great deal of time was spent planning for an implementation trip.

Six engineers, Bob Hankin, Bob DiFilippo, Linford Martin, Lora Markley, Adam Brostow, and Richard Cairncross, returned to Rugerero, Rwanda from August 22nd through September 20th with a finalized design to build new latrine systems and to teach community members the skills to continue the building process in the following months.

At the end of November 2008, 11 new latrines had been constructed and 15 existing systems had been repaired. The work should be completed by the middle of 2009 and when completed, there will be no more open sewage in the village and all of the dangerous open holes will have been repaired or replaced with new latrine buildings. The quality of life will be improved immeasurably when these changes are made.

For more information on the Engineers Without Borders project, click here.

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Healing through Creating HOPE FOR THE FUTURE through ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Sunflower Seed Oil Cooperative

Volunteer Alan Jacobson, President of Ex;it Foundation, together with residents in the Survivors’ Village and local government officials, launched the sunflower seed oil production business in April 2007. Materials and two oil production machines were brought in from Nairobi and the government assigned land to grow sunflowers to produce seeds for oil production. Over twenty people were trained to use the machines.

In early 2008, Jacobson brought in a trainer from Kenya to address production challenges with training on the use of the machines. After just one day of training, production increased significantly to 20 bottles in one day compared to less than 10 bottles over several months. By December 2008, the Cooperative will have an identity program to assist in the marketing and sales of the sunflower oil. This is made possible by a SAPPI grant “Ideas that Matter” that was recently awarded to Jacobson and the Ex;it Foundation. The sunflower oil production cooperatives have been recognized by the local government as an economic development strategy. Many new cooperatives have been organized outside of the Survivors’ Village to grow seeds to sell to the oil cooperative.

The sunflower oil production business now occupies a small building in the village with a brightly covered mural of sunflowers designed by Jacobson and painted by participants in the young women’s empowerment program with guidance from Meghan Morris and Eric Reynolds.

The sunflower oil cooperatives have been developed and funded by Alan Jacobson and the Ex;it foundation.

Young Women’s Empowerment and Sewing Cooperative

Sensing the vulnerability of young women in their teens, two Barefoot Artists team members, Terry Tempest Williams and Meghan Morris, launched a Young Women’s Empowerment program in 2007 to provide adult guidance, skill training, health information, and a structure for mutual support for young women living in the Survivors Village.

To create job opportunities for women in the village, the Widows’ Association requested assistance to set up a sewing and training program taught by a professional tailor. Barefoot Artists sponsors a one year program in which 12 women were fully trained to get jobs in nearby Gisenyi, to take on sewing commissions or to form their own businesses. Under Musana’s guidance, Clementine and Lea, the project leaders, secured a building, purchased six sewing machines, fabric, cabinets, and hired a sewing teacher. Training started at the beginning of July 2007. The first group of 12 graduates is now getting contracts to sew school uniforms and other garments and Dina Uwingeneye has begun training a second group of women. Barefoot Artists volunteer Eric Reynolds, one-time owner/founder of a Colorado-based clothing company, provided intensive sewing workshops for the women during his visit in 2008.

In February 2008, with guidance from Meghan Morris, the Young Women's Empowerment Program formally merged with the Sewing Cooperative. The group's focus is on women's health, economic development, knowledge of cooperative businesses, and assisting women to get the confidence and economic means in order to support their families. Having gone through extensive training from Red Cross on dealing with trauma, family issues, prevention of violence, and HIV/AIDS awareness and counseling, Dina Uwingeneye guides the combined effort to support women.

Basket Weaving

Responding to their request, Barefoot Artists launched a one-year basket weaving training program for 20 elderly women (aged 45 and above). They were provided with all necessary materials for the workshops and appropriate eyeglasses for those who needed them. Once they begin to manufacture, a basket cooperative in Kigali will become the outlet of their products.

Micro-lending Program

With the help of the executive secretary of the sector and the district police commander, Jean Bosco Musana worked with the villagers to set up a committee to administer a micro-lending program sponsored by Barefoot Artists. Individuals who want credit must show what they want to do and have signatures to show support from 5 other people in the village. Once the committee validates a request, a contract is signed. As of early November 2008, 10 women and 4 men had received loans. The majority of the loans (13) have helped to start small businesses and 1 supports agriculture.

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SHARING the Healing

• Barefoot Artist volunteer, Terry Tempest Williams, recently published Finding Beauty in a Broken World. A nationally acclaimed author and activist, Terry went to Rwanda with Barefoot Artists in 2005 as the Rwanda Healing Project scribe. The new work shares Williams’ experience as a volunteer with Barefoot Artists in Rwanda as well as travels to Italy and the American southwest.
• The Rwanda Healing Project DVD,: A deeply moving 23 minute long documentary film created by Chris Landy, a Philadelphia-based photographer and filmmaker. He traveled to Rwanda with Barefoot Artists in the spring of 2007 to interview and film the completion, dedication and impact of the building of the Rugerero Genocide Memorial sponsored by Barefoot Artists. This monument is now the official memorial site of the whole Rubavu district in West Rwanda. The film can be viewed online.
• The Spark of Hope: Healing and Reconciliation in Modern Rwanda is a photo exhibition that celebrates the beauty and resilience of the children of the Rugerero District in Rwanda. Barefoot Artists photographers Chris Noble, Chris Landy, Komal Soin and Jennifer Heckman give an intimate view of the future of modern Rwanda through their compelling portraits of the daily lives of Rwandese children. The exhibition was shown at the James A. Michener Art Museum and the Bucks County Intermediate Unit #22. The next scheduled venue is at Thomas Jefferson University in November 2008 as part of a campus-wide observance of World AIDS Day. For additional information or questions about rentals of this exhibit please contact jplumb8101@aol.com.
• In October 2007 the Emmanuel Gallery in Denver, CO, presented Substance: Diverse Practices from the Periphery, an international exhibition that presents how designers integrate research process and practice beyond the traditional confines of the studio environment to develop meaningful and often life changing design solutions.
• The Rwanda Healing Project, a documentary photo exhibition, was presented at the Dandelion School in Beijing, China in 2007. Photos and artwork from the Rwanda Healing Project were shared with students and faculty at the Dandelion School to inspire their creative process to transform the school environment with leadership from Lily Yeh.

President Kagame’s visit to Rugerero

On Oct. 17th, Rwandan President Paul Kagame visited Rugerero sector after a storm disaster. The local authorities decided to show him some cooperative activities in the sector. They chose to feature the various economic initiatives taking place at the Survivors Village such as sewing for orphaned young women, sunflower seed oil production and banana-leaves-turned-charcoal projects. These projects are sponsored by Barefoot Artists, our partner Exit Foundation, and volunteers Eric Reynolds and Manpreet Singh. Following his visit, the President recommended the extension of the projects to other sectors.

Jean Bosco’s visit to the United States

Barefoot Artists Coordinator in Rwanda, Jean Bosco Musana Rukirande visited the United States from mid April to early May. He visited Philadelphia, Albuquerque, Denver and Blue Hill, Maine, where he spoke at conferences, schools and with many private groups to build more bridges between Americans and his Rwandan community. We hope his many new connections will help to build awareness of the needs of the villagers in Rugerero Survivors Village as well as the work of Barefoot Artists there.

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PLANNING for the Future

Solar Energy coming to Rugerero

During 2009 and 2010, Barefoot Artists will be working with Skyheat Associates, a New York-based non-profit organization, to bring electricity through solar energy to the 100 families in Rugerero Survivors Village. The project aims to train a cadre of women and men in design, fabrication and installation skills so that they can become solar engineers to help others in need.

School Renovations Planned

Barefoot Artists and several partners will soon begin renovating the dilapidated buildings of the Elementary School Centre Scolaire, which are situated right next to the Rugerero Genocide Memorial. Project partners include; Ntamwete Hasha, Principal of Elementary School Centre Scolaire, the Rwanda Red Cross through its Western Provincial Coordinator Jean Bosco Musana Rukirande, and the Rugerero Sector.

Acknowledgements

Barefoot Artists wishes to thank its many Rwandan partners: Jean Bosco Musana Rukirande – Barefoot Artists project host and Regional Director of the International Red Cross, and Mabete Niyonsaba Dieudonne (Dieudonne) – Executive Secretary of Rugerero Sector. Other participants: Louis Gakumbaoz, Damas Ndebwohe, Lea Mukangwije, Clementine Mugurwinka, Fabrice Mutabazi, Dortea, Michel Habumugisha, Brice Rukirande, Francois, Mukamunana Joy, Madar Hareri, Marie Aimee Mujauiyera, and Lisa Alain Giovanni Dusabe of Rwanda PSI (Clean water in Rwanda).

Special thanks also to New Path Foundation, Compton Foundation, Blue Hill Consolidated School, China Road and Bridge Construction Corporation, CUST AMJ Foundation, KJK Associates, Liberty Lawnscapes, the Elizabeth B. and Arthur E. Roswell Foundation Inc., St. Thomas of Villanova Church, and many private donors.

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