A teen orphaned by the Rwandan genocide makes the heartbreaking choice to abandon her children. Years later, an unshakable bond keeps her bruised boys looking toward the future.

Occasion

Since 2005, I had been involved with an orphanage in Rwanda when the government made the sudden decision to close all orphanages. The NGOs still allowed to operate in Rwanda supported the idea that children deserved to live with their families, and government officials promised a monthly support fee. But after the first few months, families stopped receiving aid, leaving many children in desperate circumstances.

Approach

With photographer Anaïs López and filmmaker Anisleidy Fonsecca Martínez, I returned to Rwanda in 2014 and 2015.

• On our first visit, we taught a group of children photography, allowing them to document their world.
• We then selected two boys to follow closely: Hirwa and Jean-Cloude. Their mother, Farida, had been orphaned by the genocide and gave birth to her first child at 14. She hesitated but ultimately took her sons back.
• We helped her get proper medical care, as government aid was failing, and raised funds to send some children back to school.
• Hirwa survived and has since become a baker. Tragically, Jean-Cloude died 1.5 years after returning to his mother due to poverty and a lack of medical care.

Quote

“She slept with her baby and toddler in the park. People thought she was crazy, living on the streets like that. To minimize the number of people who saw them, Farida would wake Hirwa up as soon as the muezzin called for morning prayer, and then they would quietly trail off.”

Publication

Read the full story here.

Publication Details

???? Appeared on: Narratively
???? Date: January 2016
???? Project Type: Narrative journalism