Surviving Genocide: The Rwanda Healing Project

Artist Lily Yeh, founder of Philadelphia's Village of Arts and Humanities, has a new organization called Barefoot Artists, which "brings the transformative power of art to the most impoverished communities in the world." Their current focus is the two-year Rwanda Healing Project, which is endeavoring to engage 100 female-headed families from the Survivors Village in the Cyanzarwe District and dozens of workers and volunteers from the nearby city of Gisenyi. Activities include the transformation of Survivors Village and The Genocide Memorial Park honoring genocide victims from the Rugerero area, where over 800,000 people were slaughtered within 100 days in 1994. "Making art in stark environments like these generates a positive and powerful energy, the likes of which I have not experienced anywhere else," reports Yeh. Below is the most recent newsletter from Yeh and the Rwanda Healing Project. The newsletter may be downloaded as a PDF by clicking here. --Eds.

The Rwanda Healing Project, September 2005

The Barefoot artists team spent three weeks in Gisenyi, West Rwanda working simultaneously on two complimentary projects in the Rugerero area in Cyanzarwe District:

1. The Survivors Village Transformation
2. The Genocide Memorial Park

The team members included Lily Yeh (project director), Alan Jacobson (philanthropist), Terry Tempest Williams (writer) and Meghan Morris (graduate student). Collaborating closely with their Rwandan hosts and community leaders, Jean Bosco Rukirande, Liberata Umurerwa and Ildephonse Bwanakweli,

Before starting the projects, the team visited two genocide memorial sites at Nyamata and Natarama, where thousands of victims were killed in churches by machetes and knives in the fatal year of 1994. We figured that to do our work properly, we must have some understanding of this terrible genocide in which 800,000 people were systematically massacred in a mere 100 days. Many church leaders became the main instigators of the killing.

As a policy, the Rwandan government required killers and the victims to live in close proximity as a means of restoring unity and order among the people. Being in such close proximity to this terror and darkness, however, was chilling. It caused us to look inwards and plumb our own depths.

left: Nyamata church where 1994 massacre killed thousands of people; (middle) a surviver; (right) an orphan on the street (click on images for larger version)

1. The Survivors Village Transformation

According to Liberata and Ildephonse, the Rigerero survivors Village is made of people from Kibuye, Cyanzarwe and Gisenyi.

“They came to town to get their daily bread, moving from place to place, one day at the time. The government chose a place where it built houses for them. After genocide people came here. . . Their old houses were destroyed and their things taken. There is a process to select the poorest people to live in these houses. The people can live in these houses forever but they cannot sell the houses.

The village was built in 1997-1998. In 1999 it was completed. 2000-20002, the place was not safe due to the threat and outbreaks of violence. 10 houses are still without toilets. 50 houses, 100 families, 110 in primary school, 190 children in the village. 67 women headed families, 8 men headed household, 10 families led by children. The oldest of the youth headed families is 24; the youngest 12.“

Our host Jean Bosco, Liberata, the elected president of the Village, organized the villagers into working groups. We first trained six teachers in painting and design. Then we asked them to engage and supervise children’s participation in the project.

The houses in the village are made of mud and plaster with corrugated roofs. We sketched simple designs on MaMa Emma’s house and started painting. We taught people the basic techniques of mural painting while art teacher Fabrice volunteered to teach children drawing. Observing their surroundings and home life, children created many imaginative designs, some of which we sketched on the wall as public art. The results of our joint effort transformed the village environment and also brought hope, joy and new possibilities to the people.

(top left) Mama Emma with children in front ot her house; (middle) children painting; (right) turning children’s designs into public art (bottom) a transformed environment in the Village (click on images for larger version)

Hussein (a volunteer teacher and painter): “We have skills now. We assure you that we will continue the work with the children. ”

Clementine (a volunteer teacher and painter): “ A good thing is to make a team in children. They now can be together, play and talk together.”

Everywhere we went children asked for pens and notebooks. We purchased hundreds of notebooks and pens and gave them to children in school and in the Village. Seeing that most children wore the same worn out and torn clothes day in and day out, the team purchased a set of clean clothes for all the children and teens in the village. Although the distribution was challenging due to the need to match sizes of clothes with different age groups, the end result was great.

In addition, we established the Sharamunzi School of Wisdom, an after-school learning program for children in the village. Shamanza and his wife Spacious lost their five children during the 1994 genocide. Their oldest had just graduated from college. Born in 1936, Shamanza Sharamunzi is 69 years old. They survived genocide twice. Their five children were murdered in the church. “To remember was a shock to our hearts. ” Shamanza needed a job badly. Seeing that Shamanzi is an educated man, Barefoot Artists set him up to start an after-school program for children. His first lessons included the history of Rwanda and ethics in honoring women and respecting others.

(left) Shamanza & Spacious in their home; (middle) the 1st lesson in Sharamanzi School of Wisdom; (right) a community meeting to discuss ways to build a sustainable village (click on images for larger version)

2.  The Cyanzarwe Genocide Memorial Park

The memorial site is located about half a mile from the Survivors Village. Currently it contains the bones of 190 people, 43 of whom are known by name. They are all from Cyanzarbwe and Gisenyi. People continue to bring bones here whenever they find them.

Liberata: After the war, people collected the bones and kept them in a small house for a year. . .Every time I passed, I cried. God sent Lily to come to help with the monument. I am grateful for all your work.

During Lily’s last visit, she created a design for the memorial park, which was approved and welcomed by the community and the government officials. She was planning to build the monument with the local masons and people in the community. However, the project required heavy machinery and skilled labor due to its large dimensions and the rough and difficult terrain. At the request of the community leaders, Lily was able to contract the Chinese Road and Bridge Construction Company (CRBCC). Although the project was too small for a large construction company to handle, Mr. Ren, the director, understood the importance of this monument to the community and took on the project despite opposition from his staff.

When the huge construction machines arrived with stones, cement and workers, people gathered at the site with great excitement and expectation. Representing the desire of the community, Liberata and Ildephonse asked whether we could construct a basement for them so that they could bury the bones underground in the proper manner. Alan Jacobson, a team member, proposed a design for the underground chamber. Using it as a reference, CRBCC constructed a solid concrete structure with two entrances in the center due to the structural layout of the whole monument complex. The community and government officials are well pleased because the structure is well protected from ground water and rain.

During the building process, we tried to involve the neighborhood children in various tasks like measuring the site, marking the location of the monument and the bone chamber with rocks. Through the effort, children could connect to the memorial site and make it their own,

To properly remember, honor and bury the dead is very important in Rwanda. This will lay the foundation on which the community can build their future together.

Eric (volunteer teacher, painter): “Thank you for coming. When you feel the same pain and concerns, it brings such comfort to us. . . . What you are doing is good in helping people. The heart you have is feeling the pain of Rwanda and sharing what you have.”

(top left) the existing Cyanzarwe memorial site; (middle) construction in progress; (right) children helping (bottom left) underground bone chamber in progress; (middle) Lily’s proposal for the Memorial monument & park; (right) Memorial Park at the Village of Arts and Humanities in North Philadelphia designed by Lily (click on images for larger version)

“This project has brought new mind to the people here. Usually when America helps, they help ‘Rwanda.’ But this project is done specifically for us here in this village. It elevates our dignity and our self-respect. This project is doing something great for this community. It is healing people. People here have so many problems from the war, the deaths of the loved ones.

When they see such beauty done for them, they feel they are not alone that we are together.”

Philkovitch, age 14 at Rugerero Genocide Survivors Village.

left to right: Alan Jacobson, Jean Bosco Rukirande, governor’s representative, Lily Yeh, Terry Tempest Williams, Meghan Morris

Original CAN/API publication: December 2005