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A Day in the Life of Rwandan Children: October 1st, 2007

At 5:30 in the morning, myself and an interpreter were dropped off by motorcycle taxi to a family’s house. Their children are sponsored by the Portland, Oregon, based Itafari Foundation.  Unreachable by car,  transportation within the village is on foot or by an old gearless bikes for the lucky few.  I spent my time there [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:36:16-07:00October 7th, 2010|Education, Rwanda, Uncategorized|9 Comments

Clinton Global Initiative – Carbon Offsets, Cassava, and Trees

In the Kayonza district of Rwanda’s eastern province, a carbon offset program established by the U.S. based Clinton Foundation is  helping to avert global climate change, increase food yields, and raise living standards for the local people.  In Rwanda and Malawi alone, over 4 million trees have been planted through the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative, [...]

By |2015-04-01T16:20:29-07:00January 17th, 2010|Agriculture, Rwanda|0 Comments

TIG – Community Service for Prisoners

TIG is a Rwandan program allowing people found guilty of participating in the genocide to serve all or part of their sentences doing community service. TIG, “Travail d’Intérêt Général,” is a French acronym that means “works of general service.” The program is normally referred to as community service, but it is not the same kind [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:49:29-07:00December 9th, 2009|Genocide, Rwanda|6 Comments

Partners In Health Mobile Clinic in Rural Rwanda – Health and Solidarity

The summit Mount Muhavura volcano is 4127 meters.   The Rwandan village of  Nyamucucu is too small to be found on most maps. An extinct volcano,  Mount Muhavura, dominates the western sky.  The eastern border with Uganda is unmarked, somewhere between Nyamucucu’s high ridge top and the lush valley below.   Uganda [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:38:32-07:00December 2nd, 2009|Healthcare, Rwanda|5 Comments

Building Kigali Parents Secondary School.

This collection of photographs is from the building of Kigali Parents Secondary School, in Kigali, Rwanda. Building in the developing word is labor intensive.  It’s rare to see construction equipment and vehicles.  The following images are of concrete being mixed, transported, and poured for the second floor of the school. […]

By |2015-09-15T18:40:07-07:00November 21st, 2009|Education, Rwanda|6 Comments

Orphans and Vulnerable Children – Rwanda

Shelter and food are provided for orphans by the non-profit, OVC-Rwanda, in Kigali. There are an estimated 860,000 orphans in Rwanda, as last reported by unicef.  The 1994 genocide, AIDS, and hard living conditions account for much of that number.   Forty-five of them, from the streets of Kigali, Rwanda, are fortunate to [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:40:58-07:00November 19th, 2009|Children and Orphans, Rwanda|2 Comments

Pedaling for Light – Nuru’s Sustainable Solutions

How do you bring lighting to the 98.6% of rural Rwandan households that have no access to electricity?  The answer is entrepreneurship, micro finance,  pedal powered generators, portable pod lights, and an innovative company called Nuru (Swahili for light). With an award from the World Bank’s Lighting Africa competition, Nuru spent the past year working [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:42:17-07:00November 12th, 2009|Rwanda|2 Comments

Arthritis Treatment for Emmanuel’s Mother

Arthritis affects people worldwide - elders in Rwanda as well as the U.S. For the next three weeks I’ll be staying with my good friend Emmanuel, in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.  The oldest in his family, Emmanuel willingly cares for his younger brothers and sisters, some nieces and nephews, and two adopted [...]

By |2013-01-28T23:36:12-08:00November 12th, 2009|Healthcare, Rwanda|1 Comment

Clinton to Clinton – Mission Accomplished

This afternoon William Clinton, from Kigali, Rwanda, received a signed photograph from U.S. President William Clinton. William Clinton - Rwanda, holding signed photo from President William Clinton - United States. Last January while photographing a micro finance story for Rwanda’s Coojad cooperative bank,  I met a bartender named William Clinton.  Leaving with his [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:44:16-07:00November 1st, 2009|Rwanda|3 Comments

Innovation, Infection, and Poverty Eradication: Partners In Health Style

View from Butaro Hospital, Burera District, Rwanda  Two types of medicine are being practiced at the Butaro hospital in northern Rwanda; one treats diseases of infection, the other treats the disease of poverty.Using local building techniques, materials, and labor, construction of a new hospital building is now underway  in northern Rwanda’s Burera district, [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:45:54-07:00February 11th, 2009|Rwanda|1 Comment

Rwanda is a country of great natural resources

Rwanda is a country of great natural resources; not mineral deposits, not oil, not coal, not gem stones hidden in the earth.Rwanda’s natural resources are home grown – its people. Fifteen years ago the country was the scene of one of the humaniy's worst genocides .One million people were killed in the course of one-hundred [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:50:54-07:00January 17th, 2009|Rwanda|2 Comments

Millennium Village – Mayange

In September 2000, the largest gathering of world leaders in history adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty. They set out a time-bound series of targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), with a deadline of 2015 for meeting them. These goals are quantified [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:52:02-07:00October 21st, 2007|Agriculture, Genocide, Rwanda|3 Comments

Nyamata Catholic Church – Genocide Memorial

When the genocide began on April 7th, 1994, many ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus took refuge in churches, believing militias would not enter these areas which were perceived as sanctuaries. At the Nymata Catholic Church, located in the Bugesera district, 35 km south of the capital of Kigali, 10,000 people were killed in and around [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:52:35-07:00October 20th, 2007|Genocide, Rwanda|10 Comments

Child Soldiers – Lost Youth in the Congo

In times of armed conflict, children are among the most vulnerable - as victims, hostages and worse.During the genocide in Rwanda, one million people were killed in the span of one-hundred days.The killers did not discriminate;men, women, or children, any who were identified as from the “wrong” ethnicity were killed. With the fall of the [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:54:03-07:00October 13th, 2007|Children and Orphans, Rwanda|5 Comments

Ankole Cattle – A Cow Like no Others

In rural areas of Rwanda it's common to come across herders with cattle.   Typically one or two older boys walks a small herd to and from water sources and food. These, Ankole Cattle, are unique to sub-Saharan Africa with specialized horns used to cool the animal down and prevent overheating in the strong African sun [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:54:33-07:00October 3rd, 2007|Rwanda|1 Comment

Mountain Gorillas in my Midst

There are approximately 350 mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) left in the world. Their habitat range is small protected afromontane forest patches, in northwest Rwanda, southwest Uganda and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). On October 8th, 2007,  myself and seven others went with a guide to spend time with the Kwitonda group - a [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:56:09-07:00October 3rd, 2007|Gorillas, Rwanda|0 Comments

Goats for Child Headed Households

The Itafari Foundation, in cooperation with Assist – Rwanda (a local NGO), as well as the Rwandan government, have partnered up for a first of its kind  goat demonstration project.  They are raising and distributing goats to cooperatives of child headed households.  Together the children will breed and sell goats to support themselves and have [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:56:49-07:00October 3rd, 2007|Rwanda|8 Comments

Murambi Genocide Memorial

3:00 a.m., April 21st, 1994: Soldiers loyal to the genocide in Rwanda encircled the technical school in Murambi. Construction of the campus had not been finished when the genocide began. Within 48 hours all but 4 people were massacred; some blown up by grenades, some shot, most hacked to death by machetes. On the afternoon [...]

By |2015-09-15T18:57:21-07:00October 2nd, 2007|Genocide, Rwanda|7 Comments

Emmanuel’s Mother and Favorite Aunt

Emmanuel Shamakokera, is the national director for Assist Rwanda. An organization dedicated to helping young Rwandans in difficult circumstances overcome adversity and rise above the challenges in their lives. He is described by his associates as one of the hardest working people they know, devoting most of his waking hours to the youth of Rwanda. [...]

By |2011-10-21T21:12:56-07:00October 1st, 2007|Rwanda|2 Comments

Reflections on Choice and Gratitude

When we're hurt we cry, when we're happy our faces reflect our joy. We welcome the breeze that cools us on a hot day, and the warmth of a fire on a chilly night. We love our children, care for our friends and family, and cherish the time we have in the open arms of [...]

By |2011-10-21T21:37:50-07:00September 30th, 2007|Rwanda|4 Comments

Well Behaved Kids on a Saturday Afternoon

Today was my first low key day since I arrived. We had lunch in a typical Rwandan neighborhood with Vicky's friends Rita and Chrysologue. I napped on their couch, photographed Bessie the cow, and talked religion and politics with Pastor Francis who lives next door. Then Rita and I lounged on the grass by the [...]

By |2011-10-21T21:43:17-07:00September 29th, 2007|Rwanda|3 Comments

Recording Studio in Kigali – New Road Productions

Ezra Kwizera is a man of many passions – a minister, a philanthropist, and a gifted musician and videographer. This morning I visited him at his recording studio in Kigali, New Road Productions. Here’s some of what I saw… Ezra with Bogart and Bergman in the front lobby of his studio. A wider view of [...]

By |2011-10-21T21:51:11-07:00September 28th, 2007|Rwanda|3 Comments

In and Around Kigali

These images are from my first day in Kigali. My new friends Francis and Chrysologue drove me around Wednesday afternoon, 09-26-07. Woman in Kigali Residential road in Kigali This boy came up to my car window while we were stopped on a side street and asked if I would take a photo of him. Slum [...]

By |2011-10-21T21:46:47-07:00September 27th, 2007|Rwanda|7 Comments

Almost There (09-24-2007)

From Portland it takes 27 hours to get to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda (21 in the air, with two 3 hour layovers in Chicago and Brussels) . My legs did fine, however I'm still averse to sitting. The following photos are from the morning clouds over Belgium, and an amazing sunset over the south [...]

By |2011-10-21T21:14:36-07:00September 27th, 2007|Rwanda|2 Comments

First Trip to Rwanda

In April 1994, one million human beings were brutally slaughtered over 100 days in the small African country of Rwanda.This genocide was of overwhelming proportions, orchestrated by a radical political party that seized control of the Rwandan government.The loss of human life was a tragedy in its own right.A second tragedy concurrently unfolded - the [...]

By |2011-10-21T21:08:30-07:00September 3rd, 2007|Rwanda|3 Comments